Gangrene Queen
by SuperSailorCharon
Summary: When Princess's prankster cousin visits from Cityville, she runs away to fill her insatiable appetite for adventure and thrills. While she's gone, she befriends the Gangrene Gang and chaos ensues. Rated T for language and suggestive themes. Ace/OC
1. Not a Princess

**SuperSailorCharon: Here I am under a new username. I was seriously considering posting this on another site and not bringing this fic back, but a lot of people seem to like Angela as an OC, so I'm reuploading everything, especially now that it's been edited. The cover is supposed to give you an idea of what my OC looks like. Hope you like it! **

The limo drove off into the afternoon as Princess sat in the limo with her nose up in the air. A normal, less-disillusioned person would be noticing what a nice, sunny September afternoon it was or the cute little kids running up and down the sidewalks buying ice cream from the jovial ice cream man with whatever pocket money they had. Princess didn't care. She had a freezer at home stocked with every flavor of ice cream imaginable. After all, Daddy Morbucks installed it for her over the summer.

The limo pulled into the driveway of the Morbucks mansion, the most expensive house in Townsville. Princess merely sneers as the chauffer parks, and steps out to help the little girl out of the limo. Dirty urchin. Didn't he know that the hired help were supposed to wash their hands before handling her? This is what happens when Daddy hires new help over the summer. They take _forever_ to figure out how Princess likes things done.

Princess walked through the huge double-doors of her mansion as Jeeves, the head butler, greeted her.

"Miss Princess, good to see you home," he greeted warmly.

"Shut up!" Princess shrieked. "It's been a long day. I need you to get started on my homework for me."

"Of course Miss Princess, but your father told me I was not supposed to help you," Jeeves reminded her.

"I'll pay you if you do it and keep your mouth shut!" Princess snapped. "Geez, what was Daddy thinking? It's not right for a princess to have to do homework!" Princess grumbled to herself as she walked through the parlor. She was about to head up to her bedroom.

"Oh, by the way," Jeeves said. Princess stopped in her tracks. "Your cousin Angela is coming to visit from Cityville. She will be staying with us for several months while her parents are in Paris."

"WHAT?" Princess asked incredulously. "When is she gonna be here? Why doesn't anyone tell me these things anymore?!"

The doorbell rang. Jeeves opened the doors to reveal a girl about fourteen years old. She was five foot four and muscular with brown curls that went down to her waist. She had wide brown eyes and an eager smile on her face. She wore a black and white dress that looked like something from out of an old Audrey Hepburn movie. Princess trudged down the stairs and to the front door to get a better look at the girl.

"Princess!" The girl cried as she bent down and gave Princess the tightest hug she had ever gotten in her life.

"Angela! Get off of me!" Princess mumbled furiously. "You're crushing me!"

"It's SO good to see you!" Angela declared. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"It's only been six months!" Princess shrieked. Her aunt and uncle came to visit earlier in the year and they brought Angela with them.

"May I take your things up to your room?" Jeeves asked. Daddy Morbucks had a special room set up for Angela whenever she wanted to visit.

"Jeeves, no, I got it. Don't bother," Angela protested as Jeeves tried to take the two heavy, black suitcases that Angela brought with her.

"Angela, let Jeeves do it! What does Daddy pay him for?" Princess squealed.

"Maybe Jeeves is overworked," Angela said as she took her suitcases and struggled to carry them up the many flights of spiraling stairs into her room.

Princess sighed. Oh yes, this was her cousin Angela all right.

"WAIT!" Princess screamed as she raced up the stairs after Angela. "No one asked me if this was okay!"

Princess huffed up the staircase and barged into Angela's room as Angela began unpacking her things.

"Jeez!" Angela laughed sarcastically. "I guess no one in this family knocks anymore!"

"What are you _doing_ here?" Princess whined. "Go home!"

"I'd love to, but my parents didn't want me staying home by myself while they went on their second honeymoon in Paris," Angela grinned. "Besides, I think this is one of Mom's crazy ideas to turn me into a proper lady."

"So she sent you _here_?" Princess asked in disbelief. "That makes no sense! Hasn't Aunt Penelope heard of charm school?"

"She already tried that," Angela laughed as she hung up a purple argyle sweater in her closet. She began folding a pair of dress pants. "But I never paid attention and on the last day during the debutant ball, I failed because I forgot how to dance the Waltz and I couldn't remember which fork you're supposed to eat with first."

"Well _duh_!" Princess said as she rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows you start from the outside and work your way in!"

"You do?" Angela asked as her curiosity heightened.

"Yes!" Princess shrieked in annoyance.

"Anyway, Mom also tried sending me to boarding school, but I was expelled. I forgot what I did wrong though," Angela continued. "My roommate was nasty, so I glued prunes to her uniform while she was asleep. I also put a whoopee cushion that had a microphone inside of it in the headmistress's chair in the mess hall. And then there was that time I ran up and down the halls singing 'The Song that Never Ends'. That was funny! I also reset all the clocks in the school to run ahead three hours so we'd get let out of class early. Oh, and I left my tuna sandwich in my desk for a week…"

"Eww!" Princess screamed. "You _disgust _me!"

"I think though it was the cherry bomb I put in the toilet in the upstairs bathroom, though," Angela said as she laughed at the expression on Princess's face. "Anyway, I'm done unpacking. Let's go say hello to Uncle. And don't worry. I promise you'll _never_ know I'm here!"

"Ugh, whatever," Princess snorted. "By the way, the 1960's called. They want their dress back."

"You haven't changed a bit," Angela laughed.

Princess knew that wouldn't be the case. When they went into one of the many living rooms in the Morbucks mansion to go find Daddy Morbucks, he offered Angela a welcome gift of several thousand dollars. Of course, Angela wouldn't accept any of it. Princess was shocked. Although Angela's family was as wealthy as hers, there still was no reason for her to say no when Daddy Morbucks offered money. Daddy Morbucks (whose face we never saw in the cartoons and we STILL won't see in this story) sat in his huge leather chair in front of the fireplace with the money in his outreached hand.

"It's really nice of you," Angela smiled as she rejected the money. "But you don't have to do that. I'm happy just to be here in your home while my parents are away."

At dinner, the small family sat at the long dining room table. There was an abundance of food, but Angela refused to eat any of it.

"Is something wrong, Miss Angela?" Mrs. Dumond, one of the housekeepers who was typically in charge of setting and clearing the table, asked.

"No, I'm just not hungry," Angela said. She yawned and added, "I've had such a long trip. I think I'm just gonna skip dinner and go straight to bed." Princess glared at Angela as she floated innocently out of the dining room and up the stairs to her room.

Later that night…

Angela looked over at her alarm clock. It was nearly midnight. It would've been an hour since Daddy Morbucks had his evening pipe and his glass of fine French wine before going to bed. Princess was already supposed to be in bed by nine. Angela threw her frilly purple comforter off her bed and drew back the sheer violet canopy.

She tiptoed as quietly as a mouse out of her room and down the staircase to the basement. Most of the servants had either gone to bed or gone home for the night. She quietly turned the knob on the pantry door. To her delight, it was unlocked. She quickly dashed inside the cold room and flicked on the light. At home, she played this game all the time. She would refuse to eat her supper and then sneak into the pantry or the kitchen and eat to her heart's content. Why? Simple. It was more fun that way. What was the fun in doing what you were _supposed_ to do?

Angela ripped open a bag of potato chips and began snacking. Now _this_ was dinner fit for a queen.

The next day…

It was a lazy Saturday morning, Princess's favorite day to just lie in bed and watch cartoons all morning. Normally she would have one of the servants bring her chocolate chip pancakes in bed, but this morning Princess was in an especially foul mood because her father insisted on having a sit-down breakfast with the whole family in the dining room.

As Princess grumbled her way down the hallway, she noticed the door leading down the corridor to the vault where her father kept his gold was wide open. That door was _always_ locked. Who could've figured out how to open it? She grunted in an annoyed tone and quickly walked down to the vault, which was wide open. Inside, someone had carefully constructed an elaborate fort out of gold bricks.

"ANGELA!" Princess shrieked at the top of her lungs. But Angela was nowhere to be seen.

"What's the password?" whispered a voice from inside the gold fort.

"I'm feeling nice this morning, so you'd _better_ get out of there or I'm gonna tell Daddy you're in his vault! He's gonna kill you!" Princess shrieked.

"No password?" came the voice from inside the vault. "Very well. You leave me no choice!"

Angela sprang out from inside the fort and leapt on top of Princess, tackling her to the ground. She began tickling the spoiled little girl as she laughed hysterically. Tears dripped from her eyes from laughing so hard as she begged for mercy.

"Get off!" Princess begged through her laughter.

Angela finally ceased. Princess's laughter turned into a furious rage.

"So much for not noticing you're even here," Princess grunted.

"Oh come on! You used to _love_ that when you were little!" Angela grinned. "Now come on, let's go get some breakfast."

Angela's antics didn't end with the gold fort. She put a bowl of baked beans in the chair where Princess was supposed to sit. As a result, Princess was forced to walk around with a brown stain on the back of her dress until she could change her clothes. Angela also would hide behind the corner in the hallway with a squirt gun and would squirt anyone who walked by in the crotch. While Princess was using the shower, Angela snuck into her room and folded all the bed sheets on Princess's bed into origami shapes. Angela darted away when Princess emerged from her shower, steamy and rosy in her yellow terry bathrobe. Upon seeing her bed sheets, Princess shrieked, as she clearly could not take a joke.

Meanwhile,in a shabby wooden shack lived five green-skinned rogues whom we know as The Gangrene Gang. They were plugging in various (stolen) instruments into a (also stolen) amplifier.

"We're gonna sound sssssooo good!" Hissed Snake as Ace clocked him in the chin. There was only so much of his annoying right-hand man he could take. Snake quickly apologized and picked up a bass guitar.

"All right, Grubber, you ready?" Ace asked his Quasimodo-like comrade. Grubber merely blew a raspberry in response. The raspberry echoed off the microphone loudly so that everyone within a ten mile radius of the dump could hear.

"Which song are we playing tonight?" Arturo asked in his short, snappy Hispanic accent as he sat behind the keyboard.

"Billy wanna drum!" Said the slow, green behemoth eagerly.

Ace picked up his electric guitar. "We're gonna play some Led Zeppelin," he said in his nasally Italian-New Yorker accent. He grinned as Arturo began playing the first few chords to "All of My Love". Ace followed on guitar, which wasn't tuned very well. In fact, everyone was horribly out of tune or off key, except for Grubber who managed to perfectly emulate Robert Plant.

Twenty seconds later, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup burst through the ceiling of the shack.

"Drop the instruments and no one gets hurt!" Blossom demanded.

"Oh girls! You're just in time for the concert!" Ace said in his charming, manipulative way.

"We're going to have you locked up for disturbing the peace!" Bubbles announced in her overly-squeaky voice.

"All right, who ratted us out?!" Ace, losing his patience, wanted to know.

"You did! You forgot we have super-sonic hearing and we can hear you all the way from our house!" Buttercup retorted. "We're _trying_ to sleep!"

"Now that'sssss just not fair!" Snake hissed.

Our heroes were about to strike as they do in the manner we all know and love when Ace said in his attempt to charm the girls, "We just got out of the joint after ya sent us there last week! If we stop playing, will ya leave us alone? I promise we won't do it again."

"He does have a point," Bubbles, whose overly sensitive tendencies often got the better of her, pointed out. "We already _did _throw them in jail a week ago."

"Bubbles! Quit being so sensitive!" Buttercup groaned. She was still furious with Ace for playing around with her heart back when she had a crush on him and she would give anything and everything to watch him and his friends suffer.

"Bubbles is right," Blossom agreed, much to Buttercup's dismay. "Besides, it's not like anyone called the hotline. We overheard them, so it wouldn't be fair if we just decided to beat them up right here, right now."

"Your guys' music sucks," Buttercup protested. "I say we just beat the crap out of you right here, right now!"

"Don't like Big Billy's drums?" Billy asked as his lower lip dropped. He burst into tears emitting a horrible, horrible cry that knocked the girls off their feet.

"Oh no, please don't cry! She didn't mean it!" Bubbles protested as she and everyone else had their hands over their ears.

"Fine!" Buttercup groaned. "We'll kick your butts tomorrow. Just quit playing that noise!"

The Powerpuff Girls flew as far away from the dump as they could get from the noise, leaving their signature pastel trail in the night sky.

"Nice touch," Ace said as he high-fived Billy, who finally stopped wailing.

"So what do we do now?" Arturo asked. "We gotta keep it down."

"We can always go behind the electronics store. No one will hear us while we're jacking stuff when the truck comes by to restock the store in the middle of the night."

The five of them laughed wickedly as they left the shack.

Meanwhile, back at the Morbucks residence, Angela sat in her room as boredom set in. Earlier that afternoon, she chopped her curly brown locks up to her chest and straightened them before streaking them with sections of gold.

Sure, the pranks she played on Princess and the various servants who worked in the house were lots of fun. But now she was bored. She'd grow just as bored here as she did at charm school and boarding school. Surely there was some other way to find the thrills she was seeking. That's when she got the idea right after the bed sheet origami showdown.

She would change her hair and wear a disguise. She would go by a different name. She wouldn't be Angela Morbucks anymore. Instead, she would just be Angie. Maybe she could be Queen of Thieves or something else exciting like that.

Angela put away her black and white dress. Instead, she wore a gold tube-top, a pink mini skirt that had the Greek symbol for "male" embroidered on the hem, and sparkly blue tights. She looked like a prostitute, but somehow that didn't bother her. She needed to blend in with the ordinary crowd at least a little.

The digital numbers on Angela's alarm clock changed to 12:00 AM. She took a deep breath and crossed her fingers. Angela stared at herself in the mirror, staring at her exciting, dangerous alter-ego as opposed to the very privileged, very bored girl she was used to seeing. The only reminder of her old identity was a heart-shaped birthmark at the nape of her neck.

Of course she didn't want to run away forever. But she needed to make the most of her time before returning back to the humdrum existence of her refined world.

Angela tied her knotted bed sheets to her bed post. She opened her bedroom window and tossed it out, climbing down it like a rope.

"They never mentioned how hard this was in the movies," Angela said quietly to herself.

As her feet touched bottom, Angela sprinted as fast as she could. Luckily, she was very strong, so she was able to climb the huge cottonwood tree in the front yard to get over the fence without any problems. Finally, she was free from the Morbucks Mansion, nothing to hold her back.

She sprinted so fast down the streets in the wealthy community, her feet carrying her so fast it was almost as if she could fly.


	2. Girl on the Town

**SuperSailorCharon: In the last chapter, Angela ran away from Morbucks Mansion. What happens when she meets the Gangrene Gang? Let's find out! In this edit, I'll give you a darker look into Ace's thoughts as he meets Angie. **

Angela wasn't sure where to start with her newfound freedom. Where would she go? She hopped on a bus out of the wealthy community and into the downtown area. Back in Cityville, she was _never_ allowed to venture downtown by herself, even during the daylight.

Townsville was very quiet at night. Almost everything closed at around eight or nine. Booooring! The only people on the street were the bums, the creepers, the thieves, and so on.

A sketchy character that looked to be in his early thirties walked up to her. He was balding slightly and had a porn-star moustache. He put a hundred dollars in her hand. Angela was absolutely dumbfounded.

"What's this for?" She asked.

"You're a pretty lady," he said through his rat-like teeth. "Aren't you gonna give me something in return?"

"Eww, you're a sicko," Angela shuddered.

"Come here, and I'll show you what you're supposed to do," the sketchy guy said. He grabbed her from behind. Angela elbowed him in the stomach then kicked him in the shin. She backhanded him in the nose as he cursed and dropped her like a hot potato, giving her a chance to run as fast as she could.

What would that guy have _done_ to her? Oh well. It never happened, so she didn't have to think about it. Angela then stopped to realize that she was either the craziest girl alive or the bravest. A small part of her wanted to turn back and return to the Morbucks Mansion. The rest of her wanted to wait and see what would happen next.

Angela continued walking, spending most of her time picking the pockets of various vagrants or picking through trash to see if anyone left behind anything useful. By now, she was growing increasingly tired and cold, and a little lonely. Going home sounded like a good idea right about now.

That is, until she came to a dark alleyway behind Townsville Electronics.

Behind the building was an enormous truck full of valuable electronics: DVD players, televisions, game systems, the works. Angela's eyes widened. She glanced around. No one was in sight.

She'd never stolen a big-ticket item like this before. Why bother? Her parents would just buy it for her. Still…

She quickly climbed into the back of the truck as fast as she could. She grabbed a box containing a very expensive DVD player and quickly jumped out of the truck. She hid behind a trash can when the truck driver slammed the gate of the truck closed and hopped back in before driving off.

Angela sprinted towards the end of the alley and nearly smacked into a tall, skinny guy with slick black hair, dark shades, a peach fuzz mustache, and a colorful vest. He was surrounded by four other creepy-looking guys and all of them with sickly green skin. They looked to be a little bit older than her, but not too much.

"Yer outta yer territory, ain't ya, pretty lady?" He asked her. "This is _our_ turf. We's been comin' here to steal stuff for a long time. Longer than you have."

"Psh, if you're looking for the inventory truck, it's gone. You just missed it," Angela said as she rolled her eyes at him. Her fists were balled in case she needed them.

"Ace, I don't think she's sssscared of usss," Ace's serpentine companion hissed as Ace clocked him in the jaw.

"Why would I be scared of you guys?" Angela asked. "I mean, you guys are _green_ for God's sake. What's so scary about that?"

The five members of the Gangrene Gang just stopped and stared at Angela.

"Were you looking for this?" She said slyly as she showed them the box containing the DVD player. She grinned wickedly. "I might share this with you if you give me something in return."

"What is it you want?" Ace wanted to know. "We don't got nothin'."

"Got a place I can crash for the night?" Angela asked. There was definitely no point in her going back to Morbucks Mansion right now.

"You're an interesting girl," Ace said as he studied Angela carefully. "I've never seen you before. What's yer name?"

"Angie," Angela replied, remembering the alias she planned on using. "And is there any chance there's a place around here that's _not_ closed at nine at? If you can name one, dinner's on me."

"Yeah right," Ace scoffed.

"Wanna bet?" Angela asked as she took out the money the sketchy guy looking for a good time gave her.

"Where'd you get that?" Arturo asked as their eyes all widened in disbelief.

"Let's just say that people give you a lot of things just for being pretty," Angela grinned. She couldn't take her eyes off of the leader of the green gangsters, no matter how hard she tried. She'd never felt this way before, but nothing could wipe that grin off her face. She felt her face getting warmer and her heart began to beat harder. She wondered what kind of eyes were behind those shades.

"Come on. I know a place that'll deliver pizza at three in the morning," Ace said.

Back at the shack in the Townsville dump, the Gangrene Gang and their new friend sat around a wooden table and devoured a supreme pizza. The guys debated on what they should do the next day. Ace continued to watch the strange girl they picked up in the alley. He knew she'd been staring at him all night, giggling at every word he said, her face turning so red you could land a plane on it. He could see right through that shit-eating smile on her face.

Ace was normally very quick to grab an opportunity when it reared its ugly head, but this time, he wasn't sure if there was one. He could just lead her on the same way he led on Buttercup, but what would be the point? Sure, this girl had sticky fingers and it was very easy for her to get her way simply because she was pretty, but she really didn't have anything he wanted. Yet.

_I'll see what she's made of,_ Ace decided to himself quietly. _And if I got no use for her, I'll just dump her someplace. Maybe sell her to one of them human traffickers or somethin' like that. Someone'll pay me good money for that. _

He would let her stay for as long as she needed to. Maybe eventually there would be something of hers that he absolutely had to have. And then he could take advantage of this little schoolgirl crush she had on him.

She couldn't see his eyes; few people could from behind his shades. But she knew he was looking at her.

"What are _you_ looking at?" Angela asked teasingly as she giggled like the schoolgirl she was. He hated that laugh. The only thing that he could think of that was more annoying was the sound of Snake talking.

"Hey Ace," Snake said. "She asssked you a quesssstion." Ace merely socked him in the jaw.

Ace continued to discreetly look over Angela carefully while Arturo, Snake, and Angela argued about whether or not they should spend tomorrow de-pantsing random people or making fun of the nerds that hung out outside the comic book store as Grubber and Big Billy were having a belching contest. For now, Ace would just have to wait and see what this girl was all about.


	3. You Belong to the City

**SuperSailorCharon: So now that Angela has met the Gangrene Gang, who knows what mayhem, chaos, and hilarity will ensue? Will Ace decide to take advantage of Angela's crush on him or will she annoy him to no end? I do not own the Powerpuff Girls. With that being said, I don't own "You Belong to the City" by Glenn Frey either. **

The next day, the Gangrene Gang ended up at the Townsville Mall. The entire time, Ace kept his eyes on Angela to see what she was capable of. So far, she wasn't much different from the four guys he (sometimes) considered his friends: she was a complete nimrod.

Angela, Snake, Arturo, Grubber, and Big Billy had joined hands and began to sing as they skipped. Considering Big Billy was so, well, big, every time he skipped along, the floor would shake and sometimes crack. Ace merely shook his head with embarrassment. His idiot friends attempted to sing the theme from _The Wizard of Oz_. Random strangers looked at the gang as though they'd escaped from the psych ward.

"Weee're off to see the…"

"Shut up!" Ace demanded. The group came to a halt and merely stared at the extremely irate leader.

"We're ssssorry Ace," Snake apologized. "We were just having fun!"

"We won't sing anymore, I promise," Angela swore. "Can we at least skip, though? It's hilarious getting all these funny looks from random strangers who think we've escaped from the psych ward."

"I like to skip," Big Billy said slowly as he laughed unintelligibly.

"Ugh," Ace groaned as he shook his head. "Fine! Just no singin'!"

As Angela and the four other green-skinned members of the gang skipped up and down the corridors of the mall, Ace wondered how it was even possible that this was the same girl who stole a DVD player by herself and managed to mysteriously score a nice amount of money from a stranger. Because today, she was acting dumber than a post.

The group continued to skip merrily as they left gaping holes in the floor thanks to Billy's massive size.

"You five!" Shouted a mall cop. "No skipping! Your big friend is causing unbelievable collateral damage! Any more from you, and I'll have you all arrested for disturbing the peace!"

Angela, Snake, Arturo, Grubber, and Big Billy stopped skipping and trudged away in disappointment.

"Buzz kill," Angela muttered under her breath.

Ace couldn't believe what he was doing, but he took the cop's hands and said with the most gratitude he had _ever_ expressed in his life, "Thank you! Thank you! How can I ever repay you?"

"By letting go of my hands," the cop said nervously.

"Consider it done!" Ace said as he let go of the cop's hands. He kept walking when he found Arturo, Snake, Big Billy, and Grubber standing outside of a jewelry store.

"What are you's doing here?" Ace asked. "And where's Angie?"

"She went inside," Arturo said. "We asked her if she's ever shoplifted before, and she said no, so we went in there and the shopkeeper told us to get out."

"Well what do you exsssspect?" Snake said. "We stole from him before. It was easy."

The five members of the Gangrene Gang pressed their faces to the windows as they watched Angela interact with the shopkeeper.

Meanwhile, inside the store, the shopkeeper told Angela to sit down in a comfortable velvet chair as he showed her some beautiful diamond jewelry that Angela's parents could've easily afforded with what they would've considered "chump change".

"Are those boys who followed you into the store your _friends_?" Asked the shopkeeper, who spoke with a stereotypical snooty rich guy accent.

"No," Angela lied. "I've never seen those guys in my life." She hoped that they couldn't hear her from outside the store.

"Very well. I have some _very _nice things you might wish to try," the shopkeeper insisted. "First though, I'd like to give you this _beautiful_ pair of eighteen karat diamond earrings," he said as he took out a pair of beautiful, very large, diamond earrings. They were so large that when Angela put them on, she felt as though her head gained ten pounds.

"Thanks!" She said. "What're these for?"

"Well, we don't do this to _every_ customer," the shopkeeper admitted. "But we _do_ choose to do it for every customer we _truly_ value. And I see that you are a young lady with _very_ discerning taste."

"So basically in English, you're giving me stuff because I'm pretty and extremely gullible and possibly because you think I'm pretty," Angela said.

"Bingo," said the shopkeeper.

_I'm not _so_ gullible, _thought Angela. The shopkeeper turned his back to grab a few more pieces of jewelry from the storage room that he assumed Angela would like. She discreetly began stuffing diamond rings, earrings, and bracelets down her tube top between her breasts. Luckily, it wasn't too terribly noticeable, but this was one of those times where Angela wished she could be larger than a B-cup.

Outside the shop, the Gangrene Gang waited impatiently while Angela tried things on that the shopkeeper brought for her and discreetly slipping various items into her cleavage every so often. Finally, she emerged from the store. No suspicious glances, no eyebrows to be raised, no alarms to be heard.

"The guy practically _gave_ me these earrings just for being a pretty and, as far as he knows, naive girl," Angela said slyly as the guys laughed. Ace, however, did not look impressed.

"Yeah, but ya never actually _took_ anything from him," Ace pointed out.

"Bull," Angela said. "Let's go some place where no one can see us, and I'll show you _exactly_ what I took."

It wasn't easy; Angela had to make sure to watch her step or everything would spill out of her bra. But she managed to lead the gang outside of the mall as she reached between her cleavage and carefully withdrew every piece of diamond jewelry that she stole as the gang's eyes widened. All, of course, except for Ace.

"Psh, big deal," Ace said, less than impressed. "Anyone can steal from that guy. We used to do it all the time."

"Yeah, til we gotsssss caught," Snake reminded him. Of course, he got punched in the face.

"That still don't mean anything," Ace said. "All right, let's see what else you can do."

After hocking the jewelry for money (even though, much to Ace's annoyance, Angela begged to keep a few pieces because she liked shiny things), they went back into the mall and went into a few different stores to try their little experiment over and over again. The same result happened: Angela walked in as the gang watched from outside the store. The shopkeeper said all sorts of sweet-nothings to Angela, suckered in by her wide brown eyes and her innocent smile before giving her free stuff. Just when he turned away, she quickly put her small, square hands to work, pilfering whatever looked good.

By the end of the day, Ace was slowly starting to warm up to Angela's style of delinquency, even if she insisted on singing "The Song That Never Ends" the entire way back to the dump.

"Do you _always_ have to do that?" He asked in annoyance.

"Why not?" Angela responded with a giggle. "It might've got me thrown out of school, but then again, so did a million other things."

"What're talkin' about?" Ace asked. "You actually went to school?"

"Didn't you guys?" Angela wanted to know. She wasn't going to answer that question. The last thing she needed to do was tell these guys who she really was.

"Once," Arturo said. "The social worker busted us and then made us go to kindergarten with the Powerpuff Girls. Doesn't he know we're like, way too old for kindergarten?"

"I can count to 'W'," Big Billy bragged

"That's so badass!" Angela cried. She was about to launch into the hilarious story of the time her cousin wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl and tried to buy her way into being a superhero. Until she remembered that by doing that, she'd give away her true identity.

"_You_ think that was badass?" Ace asked incredulously. "Do you even know who they _are_? They ruin all our fun! Every time we wanna do something cool, they come in and ruin everything and beat the crap out of us! Oh wait, I forgot, yer probably not even _from _here are ya?"

"You could say that," Angela said discreetly. "That doesn't necessarily mean I don't know who they are."

As they walked the downtown area, they met up with the same sketchy guy who tried soliciting Angela for sex the night before.

"Whoa, I didn't realize you were someone else's property!" The sketchy guy said in slight shock. "I'm so sorry."

"You know this guy, Angie?" Ace asked.

"That's the guy from last night," Angela whispered with a wink, hoping that would be enough for him to understand.

"Well, I mean if these guys are your pimps, then I guess I should apologize for last night," the sketchy guy said.

"What's going on here?" Arturo asked.

"Oh no," Angela said seductively. "If you want some of this, I'm all yours tonight. You guys go ahead." The gang stared at her as though she was absolutely crazy. "Beat it!" She shouted.

The Gangrene Gang disappeared into an alley, watching to see what Angela would do next. Surely she wouldn't be crazy enough to give the guy what he wanted. Would she?

"Hey! I can't see what's happening!" Arturo complained. Big Billy lifted him up so that he could get a better view of the scene.

"Why don't we do it right here?" Angela suggested seductively as the sketchy guy's eyes began to widen.

Angela got down on her knees and began sliding her hands below the belt. The sketchy guy was noticeably getting more and more excited.

"Shouldn't we help her? This can't end well," Arturo said.

"She said she knew what she was doin'," Ace replied, only half sure of himself.

"I can'tssss watch," Snake said fearfully as he covered his eyes.

"Oh God, Angie," Ace shuddered. Just last night he would've paid big money to watch a young girl sell herself this way and even thought over putting this strange new girl in such a position for good. Ace didn't bother asking why he felt this sudden change of mind.

"Oops, I almost forgot," Angela said innocently. "You need to pay me first."

The sketchy guy reached into his pocket for his wallet. When he looked up, Angela had disappeared into the night.

Angela found the gang in the alleyway, all of them looking extremely relieved upon seeing her unscathed. Oh my God, did they actually _care_ about her? Angela grinned.

"Don't _do_ that!" Ace scolded.

"Don't do what? Don't trick a really horny guy into thinking I'm a prostitute so I can steal his wallet and get away?" Angela asked as she held up the sketchy guy's wallet.

"You know what, you ain't so bad, kid," Ace admitted. "That was brilliant." The other guys agreed, even Grubber expressed it by blowing a series of lively raspberries. "Now come on, let's go home."

Later that night, as the rest of the gang was sound asleep in the shack at the dump, Angela was wide awake. She shivered a little. She was used to sleeping in a luxurious, queen-sized bed with warm comforters instead of on an inflatable mattress with torn up, dirty blankets. Instead of her warm bedroom, she was in a chilly, poorly heated shack with five guys she really didn't know very well and would probably turn on her at any given moment.

Yet at the same time, she never felt more at home. This was the thrill and adventure her heart had been seeking all her life. Always being the bull in the china shop at boarding school and charm school and her randomness and prankster ways constantly getting her in trouble at home, this was the place where Angela could really be herself. Even if she was pretending to be somebody else.

She turned over as the light of the crescent September moon shone through the cracks in the ceiling. Across the room, Big Billy was on a box-spring mattress as he snored loud enough for the walls to shake. The mattress creaked under his weight Angela's eyes continued to wander. Grubber, on the other hand, merely blew a series of long raspberries. He slept standing up. Angela had never seen anything so weird in her life. In the dresser, Arturo dozed as his fists pumped rapidly. He must've been dreaming about fighting somebody. Snake hissed in his sleep. He slept under a heaping pile of blankets at the far end of the room. He constantly complained about the room being too cold. Chances were, he was as cold-blooded as his namesake.

Angela's eyes locked on Ace, asleep on the only sofa in the room. He slept sitting with his hands behind his head. Even asleep, he still tried to remain as cool and composed as always. And yet, he still left his shades on, too. How Angela longed to know what those eyes were like. She adored every little thing about him, from his nasally Italian-New Yorker accent to the way he used Snake as a punching bag. Even down to the fact that he still thought he was cool even though he had a terribly tacky sense of fashion. Seriously, yellow bell-bottoms and an orange and blue vest just don't match. Angela loved the rush of blood from her heart to hear brain every time she was with him. The feeling excited her. It made her over-the-moon giddy. She had never felt that way about anyone before. She constantly annoyed him only because he was downright cute when he was mad. When he told her that she wasn't so bad, she could hardly contain her joy. Those words continued to echo over and over in her brain.

Oh yes. This was home for her.


	4. Queen of Diamonds

**SuperSailorCharon: Here's the next chapter! Who knows what the Gangrene Gang will do next with Angela on their side? I do not own Powerpuff Girls or any characters except for my OC Angela (I keep wanting to type OCD instead of OC. Possibly because I DO have OCD. lol) I also do not own Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, Target, Wal-Mart, or any other place I might've mentioned in this chapter. If I did, I'd be a bazillionaire. **

"No! That is _not_ how you spell "stupid"!" Angela insisted.

"Yesssss it is!" Snake argued. He was holding a can of dark blue spray paint and had just gotten done spray painting the word "stoopid" all over the brick wall in an ally.

"Bull," Angela retorted.

"Will you both_ stop_ that?" Ace snapped. "Besides, Snake's right. That _is_ how you spell stupid."

"You're both stupid," Angela snapped.

Meanwhile, Grubber was playing with a party popper. Angela managed to filch a bag of them from a party store earlier that day and now she was seriously starting to regret it, because every chance he got, Grubber set one of them off. Angela hated the popping sound, and every time Grubber set one of them off, she nearly jumped ten feet in the air.

"Oh my God, Grubber, will you _stop_ that?" Angela groaned as Grubber pulled the string on another party popper and blew a very excited raspberry. "God, you're more annoying than I am, and that's saying _a_ _lot_!"

"I'll say it is," Ace agreed.

Grubber blew a few raspberries in response.

"There are times I think you should just check yourself into a psych ward," Angela said rolling her eyes. Grubber exploded into a long string of angry raspberries, which took Angela by surprise.

"Oh God," Angela said. "What did I just do?"

"You reminded him of the time he _was_ thrown in the psych ward," Lil Arturo said as Grubber curled up on the ground in fetal position and began sucking his dirty, green thumb. Grubber blew a few sad, sniveling raspberries.

"Oh bull shit," Angela groaned. "I made jokes all day yesterday about how we were acting like we were thrown out of the psych ward and he didn't get all butt hurt _then_!"

"This is different," Ace said. "A few years ago, they locked him up in the psych ward promising it would only be for a week. It turned out it was for a whole year. That's why he can't really talk. While he was in there, he forgot how."

"Oh shit," Angela said, her voice riddled with guilt. She tried to approach Grubber. "Grubber," she began quietly. "I'm sorry I told you to go check yourself into a psych ward. Will you please get up off the ground now so we can go do something fun?"

Grubber slowly pulled himself off the ground and blew a very long, very slow raspberry.

"He's notssss mad at youssss," Snake said.

"Yeah. You just gotta watch what you say is all," Ace said.

Angela was rightfully confused. In this life that the Gangrene Gang led out on the streets and in the dump, she didn't think the level of respect amongst themselves would be as high as it was. In fact, the night before when Angela was trying to steal from the sleaze ball, she was shocked that the guys were as concerned for her well-being as they were. In fact, she was so sure that if something _had_ happened to her, they wouldn't have minded watching. Who knows? Maybe they were only concerned for her safety because if they lost her, they would've lost one damn-good thief.

"So now whaddyas wanna do?" Ace asked.

"Billy hungry!" Big Billy bellowed eagerly.

"Yeah, I'm kinda hungry too," Arturo agreed.

"Sssssame here," Snake added.

"How 'bout Burger King?" Angela suggested. "I'm buyin'."

"You always do," Ace pointed out.

"Only because _I'm_ the one who has managed to steal whatever it is we have," Angela reminded him. "Do I at least get a 'thank you' for all my hard work?"

"Thank you, Angie," Ace said sweetly, his voice dripping with the stain of irony.

"I was _being_ sarcastic," Angela said.

"So was I," Ace told her.

When the gang found themselves at Burger King, they were only there for a few minutes when they succeeded in cleaning out the restaurant of every single patron. When the lady at the counter asked to take their order, Grubber grabbed the microphone and belched into it. The lady at the counter shrieked in disgust and in a flash, everyone in the dining room disappeared.

"Just order and _get out_," the lady in the counter told them, trying to mask her horror.

"Aren't you gonna ask us if we're ordering here or to-go?" Angela asked sarcastically.

"I told you to _get_ _out_," the lady at the counter repeated.

"Fine. We'll have six Big Macs and six super-sized orders of fries." Angela said.

"You can't _get_ those here. That's at McDonald's," the lady at the counter said.

"Billy want Big Mac!" Big Billy shouted.

"I just said, we don't _have_ Big Macs," the lady at the counter insisted.

"Oh, I get it. It's because my friends are green, isn't it," Angela said, pretending to be horribly offended. "I'm gonna sue you for discrimination. This would've never happened at Wendy's!"

"Your order's ready," the lady at the counter said, blatantly exasperated with the gang's antics. "I have six whoppers here with six orders of fries."Now get out before I call the cops."

Each of them took a bag containing food. Angela gave the lady at the counter the "I'm watching you" gesture as the guys all laughed.

The guys and Angela sat at one of the tables outside.

"She only said we had to leave," Ace pointed out. "She ain't never said nothin 'bout not bein' allowed to sit outside."

"Hehehe," Arturo snickered in his short, staccato laugh. "Good point, Ace."

Snake and Big Billy were filling out those little comment cards you're supposed to fill out when you're at a fast-food restaurant. Snake wrote, "Your food sucks. Screw you. And your mom, too." while Big Billy wrote in his sloppy handwriting, "HI!"

"Hey, mine came with one of those little cardboard crowns," Angela noticed as she reached into her bag. She pulled out the cardboard crown and placed it on her head.

"You look ridiculous," Ace laughed.

And she did. She was still wearing the clothes she had on when she ran away and the ginormous earrings from the day before when she managed to charm the owner of the jewelry store. The cardboard crown was the cherry on top of the sundae of Angela's ridiculous randomness.

"I'm the queen of diamonds!" Angela announced. "Fear my freakishly huge diamond earrings!"

"Your highnesssss…" Snake jokingly groveled.

"I got a better idea," Angela said. "I'm the Gangrene Queen."

The guys went quiet as they stared at her. She might as well have said "Cheese and monkeys will take over the world." Then they burst out laughing.

"Who died and made _you_ queen?" Ace asked as he laughed.

"Considering you guys never had one before, no one. So it's about damn time," Angela said as her lips curled up into a flirtatious grin.

Ace didn't have the heart to correct her. They once _did_ have a queen. He shuddered as he was stricken for a moment by flashbacks of Seduca, the rewards she guaranteed them for their loyalty to her and how she even taught them how to become better thieves. For a very brief period of time, she was more of a mother figure than most of the guys had ever had in their lives. And then she lied to them all, shattering their trust. From then on out, the idea of _any_ sort of female authority figure over him and his friends disgusted Ace. But there was nothing at all about this girl that was anything like an authority figure. After all, she was a genius one moment and a dipshit the next. One moment, she was using her wide-eyed innocence to get what she wanted, and the next she was annoying everyone around her.

"Come on," Angela said coyly, trying to snap Ace out of his trance. "You _know_ I was just kidding!" She winked at him and giggled. There was that annoying laugh again. That's when Ace knew for sure that Angie was absolutely harmless. There wouldn't be any harm in humoring her childish antics.

"All righty, my queen," he said. It was difficult to allow those words to pass his lips after he and his friends all got burned the last time. "We are ya humble servants. Whaddya want us to do first?"

"Hmmm," Angela said thoughtfully. "I say we go to Wal-Mart and do as many annoying things as we can until we get thrown out!"

And so they did.

At Wal-Mart, Grubber got on one of those little merry-go-rounds that are meant for toddlers. He put a quarter in the machine and began blowing very happy raspberries as the merry-go-round made its musical rotation.

"All right. Go nuts," Angela said as complete and utter chaos broke loose in the Wal-Mart, shoppers looking absolutely horrified at the green hooligans and their pale-skinned female accomplice. Angela walked up to the customer service desk.

"Can I help you?" The guy at the desk asked.

"Yes, I'd like to order a Big Mac," Angela said.

"You can go to the McDonald's that's right inside this store," he replied with a gracious smile.

"Can I get fries with that?" Angela asked, ignoring the customer service rep.

"Did you not hear me?" He asked, trying to be patient. "I said there's a McDonald's within this store."

"I get it, it's because my friends are all green, isn't it?" Angela asked in mock fury. "That's discrimination. I'm gonna sue you. This would've never happened at Target!" Angela stormed away.

An employee walked up to her and asked if she needed help finding anything.

"Why can't you all just _leave _me alone?!" Angela asked, pretending to be absolutely annoyed. She stomped away.

Meanwhile, random chaos ensued throughout the store. An employee came up to Big Billy and asked him politely if he needed help finding anything.

"I like Twinkies," he said in his slow, excited manner.

"Twinkies are in the grocery section at the other end of the store on aisle twelve," the employee replied. Billy just sat there, completely perplexed as to what the employee just said.

"I like Twinkies," he repeated. The employee looked very confused.

"Why don't I take you there myself?" The employee suggested.

The employee led Big Billy to the aisle where the Twinkies were. Big Billy took a box of Twinkies off the shelf and tore it open. He devoured all of its contents without even removing the wrappers.

"You can't _do_ that! I'm gonna have to call security!" The shocked employee cried. Billy merely belched in response and attempted to find the frozen food section. Once he was there, he parked himself in front of the ice cream section and began eating all of the ice cream. A few moments later, he yelled, "Brain Freeze!"

Snake found his own ways of annoying people. He would attempt to hide in very, very large gym bags and then jump out and scare people. Someone had even run away screaming in horror and thus abandoned their shopping cart. Snake jumped out of the gym bag and began riding the shopping cart away like a scooter. When that got old, he left the cart in a random place and began filling it with all sorts of items. An employee walked by him and asked if he needed any help finding anything.

"Do youssss sell wallssss here?" Snake asked.

"No, I'm sorry sir, we don't sell walls here," said the slightly freaked-out employee.

"I thought this wassss Wall-Mart," Snake said in sarcastic disappointment. He kicked the employee in the shins and said, "What a rip-off."

Over at the checkout stands, Ace attempted to annoy a cashier by saying, "Wow! It's just like magic!" in mock amazement every time an item was scanned. "How do you do that, Mother Load?"

"Um, what did you call me?" Asked the teenaged, zit-faced cashier as he scanned a pair of pajama bottoms.

Ace punched the cashier in the gut and yelled, "I just hit the mother load!" The zit-faced teen hobbled away in pain. Ace turned on the microphone and yelled, "Attention everyone! The world is gonna end in one hour! That means everything in the store must go!"

The entire store broke out into frenzy as shoppers began stuffing random items into their carts and running out the door.

Lil Arturo hid in a clothes rack and yelled, "Pick me! Pick me!" to every person who happened to pass by. Most of them ran away screaming that the store was haunted. However, when Arturo tried it when a schizophrenic walked by, the schizophrenic had a panic attack and began screaming that the voices were taunting him.

Speaking of voices, every time an announcement came on, Angela would fall to the floor screaming, "HELP! IT'S THE VOICES AGAIN!" Angela had just gotten out of the automotive section and tied two oil funnels to her chest. She walked up to the register where Ace was making all sorts of weird announcements. She grabbed the microphone from him.

"Hey!" He snapped. "Get your own register!"

Angela ignored him and began singing into the microphone to the tune of Madonna's "Like a Virgin":

_I'm not a virgin! _

_I've been touched for the thirty-first time!_

_I'm not a vuuuuhrgin!_

When that got old, Angela and Ace decided to set up a tent in the camping department. They hid inside. Snake happened to be wandering by after he got done throwing things in random aisles. He stared at the perfectly-made tent in the middle of the aisle.

"What's the password?" Angela asked in a sinister voice.

"Who said that?" Snake asked, doing a double-take to find the source of the voice.

"In here!" Ace said. "We'll let you in if you bring pillows and stuff like that."

"Ooh, ooh, and bring some magazines so we can build a bonfire!" Angela suggested.

"And marshmallows!" Ace added. "We gotta have marshmallows!"

"Hold it right there. You're not going anywhere," said a Wal-Mart rent-a-cop as he grabbed Snake by the ear. The rent-a-cop happened to have Lil Arturo and Big Billy with him. "You and your buddies have caused a lot of trouble here today, and it's not gonna happen anymore. You're banned from this store."

Ace and Angela popped out of the tent. The cop wouldn't let go of Snake's ear no matter how much Snake protested. Arturo looked pissed and Big Billy's skin was tinged with blue rather than its usual shade of green. He was shivering.

"What's his problem?" Ace asked.

"He got scared of an oncoming shopping cart and thought it would be a good idea to hide in the freezer," the cop explained briefly. "Now get out or I'm putting you all away!"

"Wait, how's that possible?" Angela asked. "Do you have a badge?"

The rent-a-cop didn't answer for a moment. Finally, he said, "No, but get out of the store or I will find someone who does."

Outside of the Wal-Mart, Angela and the gang attempted to look for Grubber.

"Weird," Angela said. "I woulda thought he woulda stayed on the merry-go-round or something."

"Hey guys! Look at this!" Arturo cried, pointing to a sign that read "Valet Parking. $20".

"What the hell?" Ace asked.

Driving by in a shiny red convertible, Grubber sat at the driver's seat as he blew a raspberry in greeting.

"Nice ride, Grubber!" Ace said. "Is that what you did the whole time?"

Grubber blew a raspberry.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Ace said, grinning. Grubber wasn't all that bright, but every so-often, he had his moments of absolute genius. Setting up a fake valet parking in front of the Wal-Mart was one of those moments. "I call shotgun!"

"You suck!" Angela cried.

The gang climbed into the car as Grubber drove off into the autumnal afternoon, down the streets of Townsville. He honked the horn a few times.

"Why doessss the horn play 'La Cucaracha'?" Snake wanted to know.

"I'm not complaining," Arturo replied as he attempted to sing along with the tune that the horn blurted out. Angela began to sing with him.

Ace rolled his eyes at them as he stared out at the world passing him by like a flash. However, no matter how annoying Angela was, he had to give her credit for one thing: that was the most fun he'd had in a long time.


	5. Captured

**SuperSailorCharon: I don't own the Powerpuff Girls. I do not own "Conga" by Miami Sound Machine. And since I'm going to try and sneak a few modern songs inhere even though Powerpuff Girls came out in the late 90's, I don't own "Lonely Boy" or "Howlin' for You" by The Black Keys. I also do not own the "Get a Job" song. That's property of Larry the Cable Guy. Enjoy!**

Back at the shack at the dump, the Gangrene Gang and Angela were trying to decide what they should do that night after the infamous Wal-Mart adventure. But first, Lil Arturo decided that he needed to borrow money from Angela.

"Can I borrow a hundred dollars, Angie?" Arturo asked.

"Aww, of course you can!" Angela said as she handed him the money. "What for?"

"I can't tell you yet, and I probably won't ever be able to pay you back," Arturo admitted. "But I promise you guys are really gonna like it!"

"Good enough for me," Angela said as she handed Lil Arturo a crisp hundred dollar bill. "Have fun!" Angela was easily suckered in by Lil Arturo's small stature and heavy Hispanic accent and thought he was just the most adorable thing ever.

"Yeah, Angie, I need twenty bucks," Ace said.

Angela, much to Ace's extreme irritation, burst out in song:

_Get a job you bum, bum, bum, bum_

_Money don't grow on trees you bum, bum, bum, bum_

"What?!" He asked. "Come on! You gave Arturo money!"

"Fine," Angela giggled as Ace groaned in annoyance. God, Angela loved how cute he was when he was annoyed with her. "How much do you want?"

"I need twenty dollars," Ace said. "I wanna turn it into quarters so we can go to the arcade."

"All right," Angela said laughing as she handed over the money. "You wanna go right now?"

"We can'tssss," Snake hissed in disappointment. "It's closed for the night."

"That's right," Angela said. "I forgot how much this town sucks and how nothing stays open all night except for the pizza place. Where I used to live, there was all sorts of good stuff to do late at night." She stopped and realized what she just said.

"Where did you live?" Arturo asked.

"Nowhere that would be of interest to any of you, but still better than this lame-ass place," Angela said. They didn't ask her any more questions, which was good enough for her.

"Billy wanna dance!" Big Billy bellowed happily. He waddled over to the speaker system (like the one in Buttercrush) and put in a CD as "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys began to play. Big Billy began swaying from side to side and stomping his feet in a lively manner as the floor began to shake.

The others stared at him as though he'd lost it until Grubber got up and started waving his noodle-like arms about. Finally, Angela said, "Why not? It's not like there's anything else to do here." She got up and began dancing alongside Big Billy as the others eventually joined in. Snake got on the floor and began doing the worm and Ace started playing a mean air-guitar solo.

They danced for several more songs and Angela even convinced everyone to do a conga line with her when "Conga" by Miami Sound Machine blasted through the speakers. The track changed a few moments later to "Howlin' for You". Everyone stopped for a moment.

"Aw, come on, this song's too slow! We can't dance to this!"Ace protested.

"You can't,"Angela said coyly. "But I can!"

In the last few days, Angela was very thankful that she had to learn ballet and ballroom dance when she went to charm school. She stuck out like a sore thumb in her bright purple leotard while all the other girls wore pastel pink or blue and she had to listen to her crazy German ballet teacher tell her how much her form sucked. Sometimes she'd get smacked with a cane if she didn't execute a move in just the precise way. She moved quickly and gracefully to the beat of the music, just the way her speed and finesse allowed her to shoplift and pick pockets without getting caught. The entire time she danced, she never took her eyes off of Ace.

And although she'd never know it because his eyes hid behind his shades, he couldn't take his eyes off of her either.

Afterwards, all the guys applauded.

"Where'd youssss learn to move like that?" Asked Snake in amazement.

"No particular place that would interest you," Angela said discreetly.

Ace was at a loss for words, but he couldn't take the grin off his face. Angie might've annoyed him to no end, but one thing was for sure, she knew how to use her body and use it well. He was beginning to feel strangely uncomfortable when he realized that this was _Angie_, and of course he quickly snapped out of it.

"I'm bored," Angela said. "We should go do something else now."

"Billy wanna dance," Big Billy protested long after the speakers were turned off. He began to sway from side to side even though there was no music playing. But he went ignored.

"Like what?" Arturo wanted to know.

"The radio in the convertible Grubber sssstole yesterday doesn't have a radio," Snake pointed out. "We should get that fixed soon."

"How's about tonight?" Ace suggested deviously.

"To the Gangrene mobile! Away!" Angela cried.

They piled into the convertible. Ace decided to drive that time despite Grubber blowing raspberries in protest. Maybe he should've let Grubber drive because Ace kept swerving off the road and onto the sidewalks, barely missing the lampposts, and knocking over trashcans. Finally, he stopped on a dark street corner where someone left their car parked under a lonely-looking streetlight.

"What do we do here, Boss?" Big Billy asked slowly.

"Arturo's the master at this kinda thing," Ace said. "We let him do it."

"Do what?" Angela asked.

"Shh!" Ace hissed. "Not so loud!"

"Sorry," Angela said as she lowered her voice.

"Arturo's the best at jacking car radios," Ace told her. "We wait here while he does all the work. Sometimes Grubber goes with him to keep an eye out for anyone who might catch us while we hide in the alley."

"Can I go with Arturo?" Angela asked. "I wanna learn how to do it."

Ace looked at Angie and the eagerness in her wide, brown eyes.

"You sure?" Ace asked. "It's a pretty big deal."

"Psh, I just wanna watch is all, just this once," Angela assured him.

"All right, it's all on yous guys," Ace said as he turned Angela, Arturo, and Grubber loose while he, Snake, and Big Billy hid in the alley. They watched everything unfold carefully.

Grubber quietly got on top of the car. He took out a baseball bat and began smashing the windshield, creating a hole just big enough for Arturo to crawl through. Arturo took a quick second to thank his maker for his small stature before sliding over to the passenger's side and unlocking the front door.

"Angie, get in," he whispered as he motioned for her to come over.

Angela climbed into the car quietly as Arturo took out a pair of pliers. He tried detaching the radio until it came loose, only attached to the rest of the car by bunches of wires. Angela watched with wide eyes as Arturo began carefully cutting the wires.

"I wanna try that," Angela whispered in amusement.

Arturo looked at her as though she were crazy. This was always _his_ job and to give it to someone he'd only known for a few days? Angie was a pretty good thief, but could she steal a car radio and do it right?

"Watch me do this wire and I'll let you cut the last one," he said. "Be careful though. If you hit it in the wrong spot, the radio won't work."

He reluctantly handed over the pliers to Angela. She carefully clamped down on the last wire and that's the last thing she remembered when everything went black.

Arturo immediately began to panic. He jumped out of the car with the radio as Grubber blew a concerned raspberry.

"Oh man, this is bad," Arturo panicked, trying to keep his voice down. "I dunno what happened, she just cut the wire and it shocked her. How does that even _happen_?" Grubber blew a raspberry as though agreeing with Arturo.

Arturo looked up and noticed a familiar streak of pastel pink, blue and green. He panicked even more.

"We gotta get outta here, Grubber!" Arturo cried. Grubber blew another agreement raspberry. They raced off, leaving Angela lying in a crumpled heap in the car.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup landed near the car with the smashed windshield, disappointed to find anyone at the scene at the crime.

"There's nothing here," Bubbles pointed out.

"Maybe there's a clue inside the car," Blossom suggested. She threw the door of the car open and found a scraggly-looking teenager in flashy clothes lying there unconscious. She gasped.

"What is it?" Bubbles asked.

"It looks like someone tried to steal a car radio," Blossom said.

"I didn't know people _did_ that anymore!" Buttercup cried.

"And something tells me this girl knows a thing or two about what happened here," Blossom said.

"You think _she_ did it?" Buttercup asked.

"I'm not sure," Blossom said. "Maybe she was with someone who did do it." She tried getting the girl to respond. "Hello?" She went into the car and took the girl's pulse. "She's unconscious, but her pulse seems normal, so there's no reason to just rush her over to the emergency room."

"What do we do?" Bubbles asked.

"I say she's faking it," Buttercup suggested skeptically. "She probably broke into this car and is probably playing dead so that we won't think she did it."

"Innocent until proven guilty, Buttercup," Blossom reminded her. "Luckily, I know some first aid. Let's take her back home and see if her condition improves overnight. And then she can tell us her side of the story."

"Blossom, I know everyone says you're the smart one, but this is an incredibly stupid idea," Buttercup said. "What will the professor say?"

"Maybe he can help us figure out what happened to her!" Bubbles cried. "Besides, she'll be our new best friend and we can ask the professor if she can stay and play with us!"

"Bubbles, this isn't like one of your stray pets," Blossom said sternly. "As soon as she recovers and tells us what happened here, we have to let her go."

"What if she has nowhere to go?" Bubbles asked sadly, thinking of the horror of what it would be like if this girl had no family.

"We don't know that yet," Blossom said. "Now come on, let's get her home."

They carefully lifted the teenage girl out of the car and flew off with her into the night. The Gangrene Gang cautiously crept out of the alley. They were shocked with what just happened and just stood there in silence.

"Angie gone," was all Big Billy would say.

"What was _that_?" Ace asked Arturo.

"Angie said she wanted to cut the last wire!" Arturo said defensively. "So I let her do it and she got shocked. How's that even possible?"

"You couldn't have just taken her with you?" Ace asked furiously.

"There wasn't any time! Grubber and I saw the Powerpuff Girls coming!" Arturo cried. Grubber blew a raspberry as though trying to beg Ace for forgiveness. Ace merely smacked the both of them.

"If she wakesssss up," Snake said, "Do you think she'll rat ussss out?"

Ace didn't answer. Instead, he said, "Come on guys. Let's go home."

They piled into the car. This time, Grubber drove the gang back to the dump. The entire time, Arturo and Snake were arguing over whether or not the radio they stole would work in this car, but Ace was too furious to care.


	6. Ace of Hearts

Ace couldn't sleep at all that night. His eyes looked closed behind his shades, but tonight he was wide awake as the light of the moon softly illuminated through the cracks in the ceiling. Normally, he would be able to drown out the sound of Big Billy's incessant snoring (which always sounded like someone ripping a really nasty fart for some weird reason). He tried to make himself comfortable on the couch.

Something was missing. How was it that Angie hadn't even been part of their gang for a few days and yet he wasn't used to seeing an empty space in the middle of the room where she slept?

He wasn't worried about Angie; she was tough. She would figure out how to find her way back to the dump eventually. And if she didn't?

Well that wasn't hard. Ace would just find another really, really good thief to replace her. That wouldn't be hard at all. No way.

Okay, maybe it wouldn't be easy. But did he really want to replace her though?

Ace thought about Angie and the way her antics drove him up the wall, how she would burst out in song at random moments and how she could never, ever sit still. And yet, despite being a hyper little ball of energy, she was always the first one asleep every night. That was why the room looked so empty without her.

He spent most of his life convinced that he didn't have a heart. So what was this strange feeling? It wasn't like earlier when he was watching her dance. Nah. He'd seen plenty of hot girls before. That was nothing new. This was different. And whatever it was, it swallowed him whole. There was no escape from it.

Ace knew where she was. And he wished she was with him.

_Snap out of it, man, _Ace told himself. _You didn't need nobody before and you don't need nobody now. Especially not some girl. _

Ace smiled to himself at that last thought, widely enough so that his fangs stuck out. With that, he fell asleep.

The next afternoon, Angela rubbed her aching head as she opened her eyes to a strange and unfamiliar place. She panicked for a moment. Where was she? She threw a fluffy white throw blanket off of her as she bolted upright.

She was in the living room of a middle-class home and she'd been sleeping on the leather sofa for so long that her body made an indent.

How far away from the dump was she? Her body went rigid and icy with fear as she began to hyperventilate.

"Let's go see if she woke up," Angela heard a voice say. It belonged to a young girl.

"Yay!" Chirped a squeaky female voice. Somehow, they didn't sound too unfamiliar to Angela. What was going on? How could this get any weirder?

Her question was answered when three little girls in matching dresses of pink and blue and green stood in front of her. Their big pastel eyes studied her carefully and suspiciously.

"Oh my God!" Angela cried. "This _has_ to be a dream! I'm in the house of the Powerpuff Girls!"

Bubbles giggled.

"Well, it seems the patient made a full recovery," Blossom observed smiling. "Looks like my first aid training came in handy!"

"Blah, blah, blah," Buttercup said as she rolled her big, green eyes. She hated when her sister put on airs.

Angela loved the Powerpuff Girls. She knew all about their awesome deeds whether it was from the news or from Princess. How exciting it must be to fly around all day and have really awesome super powers. Angela wanted to meet them when she found out they were living in Cityville for a little while, but unfortunately she was stuck in a lovely little prison called boarding school.

"You guys rock!" Angela said. "I've heard all about you on the news and in the papers and stuff and so it's really badass to finally meet you! But can I ask one question?" Angela asked.

"Go ahead!" Blossom invited. "Because we were hoping you could answer a few questions for us, too."

Angela remembered the last thing that happened before she blacked out. A jarring, painful shock went through her body. Before that, Arturo told her she could cut the final wire. Surely, they were going to ask what she was doing in the car. She had to think of something quickly.

"What happened to me? How'd you find me?" She asked.

"Someone called the hotline saying that they saw someone trying to break into a car," Buttercup explained impatiently. "_You_ wouldn't happen to know anything about that, _would you_?" She asked suspiciously. "Was the baseball bat we found at the scene _yours_?"

"Buttercup!" Blossom scolded.

"Well," Angela said. From there, the lies began spilling out like word vomit, "I had a friend drive me home. Suddenly, our car was jacked. They wanted the radio. My friend got away, but I couldn't. They took the radio and they beat me with the baseball bat until I collapsed. That was the last thing I remember."

"What do you mean by _they_?" Bubbles wondered.

"These two big guys," Angela said. "They were huge, like they could've been in a strongman competition. They had scraggly beards and they were bald. They smelled like they hadn't showered in a year."

"I'm so sorry," Blossom said sympathetically. "We'll go to the cops. They'll work with us to find whoever did this to you."

Buttercup's eyes narrowed in on Angela, not leaving her for a moment.

"By the way, what's your name?" Bubbles asked.

"You can call me Angie," Angela replied.

"Ugh, let's just watch some TV," Buttercup said rolling her eyes. She and the girls sat on the couch next to Angela as Buttercup grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV where the news was on featuring the news anchor that talks like Sean Connery.

"Hey, maybe they'll show the monster we fought on the way to school!" Blossom cried.

"And in other news," the news anchor said, launching into another story, "Fourteen year old Angela Morbucks has been missing for three days. The teen was visiting with her uncle, billionaire Mr. Morbucks and her cousin, super-villainess Princess Morbucks when she escaped from her room on Saturday night without a trace. Anyone who has any information on her whereabouts is to contact Mr. Morbucks immediately. A reward will be issued upon her return. She can be identified by a heart-shaped birthmark at the base of her neck.

The news showed an old photo of Angela with her old long, curly hairstyle. Her heart began to beat faster with fear. If they asked for a birthmark, she'd be screwed and her joyride would come to an end. She would be forced to return to her mundane world of the prim and proper.

"Holy cow! Princess has a _cousin_?" Blossom asked incredulously.

"Who is this _Princess?_" Angela inquired. It was the only thing she could think of to ask.

"Only the most annoying, spoiled idiot ever!" Buttercup groaned. "She is a _colossal _idiot. She is so stupid that she…"

"Buttercup!" Blossom interrupted. "Princess was new here. She moved here a little while ago and decided she wanted to be one of us. We told her we don't allow new members because it's too dangerous and she would only get in the way. Of course, she just _had_ to have her way."

"It _was_ kinda funny," Bubbles admitted. "She bought all these super suits to try and be a superhero, but they didn't really help."

"Maybe she just wanted to feel included," Angela said. This sounded like her cousin, all right. "After all, some people seem totally mean on the outside, but once you include them, they're really, really cool!"

"We tried that!" Bubbles cried. "On the first day of school, we asked if she wanted to play with us, but she acted like a stuck-up jerk!"

"There's nothing good about her," Buttercup said. "She slowed us down when we could've easily stopped that bank robbery without her, she ganged up with Mojo Jojo to get rid of us, and she almost ruined Christmas for everybody."

"Are you sure you should be talking about her like that?" Angela asked. "I mean, you don't even know her that well." If there's one thing she couldn't tolerate, it was talking _about_ people instead of _to_ them.

"Psh, all we need to know is that she's some spoiled brat whose daddy gives her everything she wants," Buttercup groaned as she rolled her eyes. "Who needs her?"

Angela couldn't believe what she was hearing. As cruel as her cousin was to her and as much as Angela liked playing pranks on her since she was such an easy target, Princess was the little sister Angela never had. Angela loved Princess from the day she entered this world. Besides, it wasn't Princess's fault she was so spoiled. She was lonely.

_Angela was engulfed by flashbacks of the divorce two years ago, back when she was twelve and Princess was three. Daddy Morbucks lived in Cityville for a little while. Angela remembered the nights when she would stay up late and hear her parents talking about her uncle's messy divorce from his wife, Narcissa. Angela would creep out of her cozy bed and tiptoe to the top of the stairs without a sound. _

"_I told my brother he was marrying a gold-digger. Did my little bro listen to me? Oh hell no!" Angela remembered her dad's voice saying. "He said, 'Narcissa's a good woman. She'd never do that to me.' Look what she does! She cheats on him and them tries filing for divorce six months later!" _

"_It's going to be so hard on Princess, growing up without a mother," Angela's mom sighed sadly._

_And it was. While her uncle got custody of Princess, Angela watched Princess grow up without a mother figure in her life. Narcissa never returned. Angela watched her uncle spoil Princess with whatever she wanted. He used to talk a lot before the divorce, telling all sorts of exciting stories of his business ventures and political exploits. But afterwards, he never spoke at all. Instead, he continued to give Princess whatever she wanted. She was the only girl in his life he would ever need to spoil. Sometimes Princess would scream out at night for Mommy. And when she did, Daddy Morbucks gave her whatever she wanted. But she would never have Mommy. Never again._

"Angie, are you okay?" Bubbles asked.

"Oh, yes, of course," Angela lied. "Just trying to watch the news is all." Really, she hadn't been paying any attention to the story on the man selling kittens outside of the grocery store.

"Hey look!" Blossom cried. "We're on now!"

"This morning, the Powerpuff Girls stopped a gigantic gorgon from causing massive collateral damage in downtown Townsville," the news anchor said. "The girls were able to take down the creature in under five minutes and they still had time to attend Pokey Oakes Kindergarten where the three of them are honor students."

"Oh yeah! We're awesome!" Buttercup boasted.

"It's all in a day's work, I suppose," Blossom said, pretending to be modest. "Anyway, I like to believe there's _some_ good in all the villains we battle, even Mojo Jojo," Blossom admitted. "Mojo Jojo was just a neglected monkey. Even the Gangrene Gang has some good to them, even if we can't see it. Remember the time we saved Big Billy from the oncoming train and he followed us around everywhere until he started ruining everything?"

Angela couldn't believe this. But this sounded like something that would happen to Billy, all right. She grinned.

"Buttercup might be able to tell you what if there's anything good about them," Bubbles giggled.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Buttercup shuddered.

"Oooh! Oooh! I wanna know!" Angela cried out excitedly. This was about to get interesting.

"I wanna tell the story!" Bubbles cried as Buttercup's forehead met her hand and her face turned bright red. "Buttercup used to have a _huge_ crush on the leader!"

Angela couldn't help to be but a little jealous. However, she could easily understand why Buttercup would. Angela was wishing she could hear that voice right now and see that wicked grin on his face with his fangs sticking out. She loved the fact that he was unlike anyone else she'd ever met in her life. Oh, and it didn't hurt that he had a nice ass, either. Angela tried to stop herself from giggling.

"Yeah, until he took advantage of me so he could get rid of my sisters," Buttercup frowned. "I'll never trust anyone again."

Angela couldn't believe her ears. She felt a sickening notion in her stomach. If he could lead a Powerpuff Girl astray, he could easily take advantage of an ordinary like her. But what would she want with her? So many questions popped up in her brain. So many answers longing to be found.

Luckily, the hotline rang. Blossom answered it. Angela couldn't help but realize that the face on the hotline phone looked so creepy.

"Girls! Trouble! Move out!" She barked at Bubbles and Buttercup two seconds later.

"I'm sorry we can't stay," Bubbles apologized. "We'll be back when we get done foiling a bank robbery!"

"I have to go too," Angela said. "I need to get back to my family. I dunno if they miss me. But I sure do miss them."

Angela may have been lying to those girls that entire time, but this was one thing she had said all day that wasn't entirely a lie. She had only lived with the Gangrene Gang for three days, but they were the closest she had ever felt to being home. Of course, the girls didn't hear what she said, because they were gone in an instant in a flash of pink and blue and green.

As Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup zipped through the sky en route to the bank, Bubbles said, "You know, Angie's a nice girl, but there's something about her that seems kinda weird."

"I'm _telling_ you, she's the one who jacked the radio!" Buttercup insisted.

"I wouldn't say _that_ much, but there's something about her story that doesn't add up," Blossom said. With that, they crash landed through the roof of the bank and beat the robbers black and blue as the innocent by-standers cheered.

Meanwhile, back at the Townsville Dump, Ace, Snake, Lil Arturo, Grubber, and Big Billy were all sitting around playing poker. As usual, Grubber was winning.

"He always wins," Arturo said in disappointment as Grubber gathered up whatever the gang placed up as a bet and blew a huge raspberry in triumph.

"Any idea when Angie's coming back?" Ace asked casually.

"Will you quit asking that already?" Arturo complained.

"That was the first time I asked!" Ace protested.

"Exsss-actly," Snake said. "You never care when one of _ussss_ goes missing!"

"You thought Big Billy was dead when he ran away to help Powerpuff Girls after they saved Billy from oncoming train," Big Billy reminded him slowly. Ace was shocked that Billy even remembered that ever happened.

"I just wanted to know, that's all," Ace said. "Besides, she owes me money!"

"Actually," Arturo corrected him, "You owe _her_ money. So do I. Lots of it."

"Oh yeah. You never told her what you were gonna do with it," Ace pointed out.

Just then, Angie burst through the door carrying a hot apple pie.

"Honey, I'm _home_!" She cried. "And I brought pie!"

Ace grinned, flashing his fangs. Oh yeah, Angie was back all right.

"What'ssss with the pie?" Snake asked as Angie set the pie down on the table.

"Let's just say I was doing Professor Utonium a favor by taking this pie off his hands," Angela explained. "He learned the hard way that if you leave a pie to cool on the windowsill, birds will invade your house."

A cutaway reveals Professor Utonium chasing blackbirds out of the kitchen with a broomstick while yelling, "Shoo! Shoo you rats with wings! Get out of my kitchen!" The scene then cuts back to the wooden shack at the dump.

"Big Billy likes pie!" Big Billy cried as he took a fistful of pie with his hands and began chowing down.

"Sssssave some for me!" Snake cried.

"Thanks for bringin' a pie back," Ace said as the others began scarfing down the pie. "But I gotta ask ya somethin'."

"Go ahead," Angela said. Her face began to turn bright red.

"Why'd you bother comin' back?" Ace asked. "Don't you have somewhere else to go?"

"Nowhere that I would _want_ to go back to," Angela said. "Why? Don't you guys even want me here?"

"Nah, it ain't that," Ace told her. "You just don't seem like the kinda girl that would wanna spend all your time hangin' out with us is all."

"Well, whatever it is, my life would be _so_ boring without you guys," Angela said. She went off to join the others in hopes that there would still be some pie left.

Ace couldn't help but smile. At least now, the wooden shack would feel a little less empty.


	7. A Walk in the Park

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls or any of the characters except for Angela and I don't own "Pocket Full of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield. I also do not own "Windy" by The Association although I thought it would be fun to use it as a parody in this chapter.**

Nearly two weeks had passed since Angela ran away from Morbucks Mansion. It was the first day of autumn, and on this particularly lovely morning, Angela was the first one awake. She was combing her hair using a comb she found lying around on the table where the gang was playing poker the night before (and predictably, Grubber won, as always). As she attempted to flatten her hair, which was starting to curl back into waves of brown and gold, she began singing at the top of her lungs.

"I gotta pocket, gotta pocket full of sunshine, I got a love and I know that it's all mine, oh, whoa," Angela sang, pretending the comb was a microphone.

Lil Arturo came in from the other room and upon seeing Angela using his comb as a microphone, his jaw dropped.

"Maria!" Arturo cried out in horror. No one ever used that comb except for him. He loved it more than anything else he owned. He swiped thee comb from Angela's possession, noticing strands of her brown and gold hair caught in the teeth. "I'm sorry, Maria," Arturo whispered affectionately to the comb. "_Mi corazón, mi amor_," he added. He was about to walk away to go give Maria her daily polish.

"You're in love with a comb?" Angela asked. "That's mildly disturbing."

"You have no respect for other people's belongings, do you?" Arturo asked, growing annoyed.

"I've learned from the best, Shorty," Angela said as she stuck her tongue out at her.

"Clever, did you think of that one yourself?" Arturo asked in disgust. He was used to people making fun of his size, but it got old quickly.

Ace walked in, an irritated expression on his face.

"Would yous guys keep it _down_?" He asked impatiently. "Some of us like to sleep in!"

"Good morning, hardware store," Angela greeted in the sardonic manner which she'd grown accustomed to using.

"_Hardware store_?" Ace asked in deep irritation. "_Hardware store_?!"

"Yes," Angela nodded. "How do you go around thinking you're so cool when you share the same name as a hardware store?"

Ace wanted to slap Angela, but he couldn't find it in whatever heart he had inside of him to do it. Instead, Ace clocked Arturo on the head.

"What was that for?" Arturo asked. "You're mad at her, not me!"

"The both of ya need to shut up," Ace said. "I'm going back to bed."

"I dunno how you do that," Angela said. "You're the only person I know who can sleep until three in the afternoon. Besides, I just had a random thought."

"Not now," Ace groaned. "It's too early for that!" But Arturo was intrigued.

"What's that?" Arturo wanted to know.

"It's been two weeks since I became your queen," Angela pointed out. "And I say we celebrate my jubilee with ice cream on my dime, especially since the word 'jubilee' sounds like an ice cream flavor anyway."

Ace liked that idea. Ice cream on someone else's dime was always a good idea to him. This was a perfect example to him of how Angie was absolutely annoying, yet impossible to stay mad at.

Forty minutes later, the gang walked out of the Townsville Ice Cream Parlor after completely annoying the guy at the counter who was wishing he had a different job. They jumped into their car and drove off down the road.

Grubber, as usual, drove. Surprisingly, he was the only one who could drive the gang from point A to point B in one piece. Ace could drive, just not in a straight line, Arturo was too short to reach the pedals, and the rest of them couldn't drive their way out of a paper bag. Ace usually sat shotgun and Arturo sat on Angela's lap (since there was only room in the convertible for five people) as Angela sat sandwiched between Big Billy and Snake.

"Sssssooo now what do we do?" Snake asked as he ran his forked tongue over his chocolate ice cream cone. Grubber drove past the Townsville Park with one hand on the wheel and the other hand on his double-scoop ice cream cone.

"We could have a little fun at the park," Ace suggested with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Oh no," Arturo protested. "Every time we go to the park, we end up getting our asses kicked."

"That'sssss why we have a car," Snake pointed out. "So we can get away if we have to!"

Grubber pulled up at the curb as the Gangrene Gang and their female accomplice hopped out of the convertible. It was one of those sunny fall days where the last breaths of summer were on their way out and the trees were a colorful palate. Families had brought their children to enjoy the playground while the weather was still nice. Of course, the parents had to take one look at the Gangrene Gang and realized that a nice day was too much to ask.

It took a little under ten seconds for the chaos to unfold. Grubber had pushed a preschooler off one of those little springy horses. He got on and began riding it as the three year old began wailing like a siren.

Arturo and Snake were holding a competition to see who could climb the jungle gym backwards the quickest. They ran up the slide and down the steps, knocking over a bunch of little kids. They laughed as they swung across the monkey bars. Snake's long, gangly legs touched the ground as he crossed the monkey bars while Arturo's short arms struggled to reach the next bar.

"Wanna climb the monkey bars!" Big Billy cried excitedly as he jumped up and reached for the bar. Of course, he was so big that he pulled the monkey bars downward. "Oops," he said slowly, realizing the monkey bars were indented towards the ground under the impact of his size and his grip. "I think they broke."

Angela sat on a swing trying to make herself go as high as possible. She called Big Billy over.

"Billy! Come on! Gimme a boost!" Angela cried.

"Okay!" Big Billy cried eagerly. With all of his might, he pushed Angela so that she swung over the bar several times. She screamed at the top of her lungs like she was on the biggest rollercoaster in the amusement park, adrenaline all the way.

"OH YEAH BABY!" Angela cried. She didn't realize the impact was so great that some of the other kids on the swings fell off.

Ace went over to the merry-go-round where some kids were already playing.

"Hey kids," he began in his usual mock charm we all know and love, "you want me to make this thing go faster?" The kids looked to be no older than six, and they all looked up at the teenager in terror.

Ace swung the merry-go-round so fast that it became a colorful blur. When the vicious cycle from hell finally stopped spinning, the kids all hobbled off the merry-go-round, most of them vomiting in the bushes.

"I can't believe this," fumed a morbidly obese woman as her child ran over to her, crying in fear. "Don't those kids realize that they're too big to be playing on the playground?"

"And don't _you_ realize that you're too big for a park bench?" Angela pointed out. She was still dizzy from her joyride on the swings.

Angela realized that this was probably the meanest thing she had ever said to anyone in her life. She wasn't used to talking crap, just pulling pranks on people. But Ace came over and high-fived her.

"Nice!" Ace said approvingly. Angela didn't like being intentionally nasty, but she would do anything for Ace's words of praise.

The morbidly obese woman whipped out her cell phone and dialed 9-1-1 with her sausage-like fingers. Angela wandered off into the bushes where she hurled up swirls of mint and strawberry.

Sirens from up the road wailed, growing louder and louder.

"Oh, you boys are asking for it," the morbidly obese woman threatened. "The cops are gonna put you away for a _long_ time."

"Uh-oh," Ace said. "Let's get outta here!"

The Gangrene Gang jumped into the convertible as Grubber put his foot on the gas. They sped off down the road with the police hot on their trail. The morbidly obese woman walked away with her child and Angela finally came out from behind the bushes. She glanced around, realizing that the gang left her behind. She shrugged her shoulders. She had a pretty good idea of where to find them, and so she didn't worry.

Meanwhile, the police were hot on the pursuit of the Gangrene Gang.

"Man, can't you go any faster?!" Ace demanded as Grubber blew a panicked raspberry. "What?!" Ace panicked. "The breaks are shot?!"

"We're all gonna die!" Arturo cried.

"Big Billy no wanna die!" Billy blubbered.

"Look out for thosssse guysss!" Snake cried as Grubber sped past a marching band. Apparently there was a parade in Townsville to celebrate the first day of fall.

"How does this get any worse?!" Ace asked in frustration and horror.

Grubber tried honking the horn in desperation, but to his dismay, the horn didn't work.

"The horn's not working either?!" Ace groaned. "It's because you kept playing it for Arturo and Angie's sick amusement!"

"Speaking of Angie, we forgot her!" Arturo pointed out. No wonder there was more room in the convertible and he didn't have to sit on Angie's lap.

"Sssssomeone call 9-1-1!" Snake suggested. "We're gonna crash!"

"You idiot!" Ace snapped as he turned around. He reached back and socked Snake in the face. "Who do you think is chasing us?!"

"Honk! Honk!" Big Billy yelled. "Get out of the way! Honk! Honk!"

"What are you _doing_?" Arturo asked.

"Big Billy wants to be the horn!" Billy cried. "We gots no horn, so Big Billy wants to be the horn!"

Suddenly, the car stopped moving. Instead, it was levitating. Ace looked over the side and noticed the police cars were coming to a stop. Someone was lifting them up.

"It's the Powerpuff Girls!" Arturo cried. He had been looking over the side as well. "They saved us from crashing!"

"Yeah, and now we're gonna make sure you're locked up where you belonged!" Blossom declared. She, Bubbles, and Buttercup dropped the convertible as it came crashing down on the pavement. If that didn't hurt enough, the Gangrene Gang found themselves beaten to a bloody pulp by the girls as they lay in a heap on ground. Ace moaned in pain and realized that getting his ass kicked by three kindergarteners was more and more humiliating each time around.

"We'll take it from here, girls," said the police chief. "Good work!"

"Not a problem!" Blossom said. "We do what we can to protect the good people of Townsville from creepers like these guys. Come on girls," she said to her sisters. "Let's go home!"

The Powerpuff Girls took to the skies leaving their signature colored streak behind them. The cops attempted to put all five gang members in handcuffs. Lil Arturo tried to use whatever strength he had left to get away, but the cops handcuffed him. They had already handcuffed Big Billy who was crying about not wanting to go to jail.

"Please, we can explain!" Ace begged as the officer handcuffed him.

"Don't even try it," the officer said. "You boys are going away for a _long_ time!"

Meanwhile, Angela was still up the road on her way to the Townsville County Jail. That was the first place she thought to look for the rest of the gang. Suddenly, she heard music playing from behind her. She turned around and noticed the marching band playing in Townsville's fall parade. For now, she would just take her sweet ol' time in getting to the jail. As the marching band played, she sang along and danced on the sidewalk while people stopped and stared.

_Who's peeking out from under the stairway_

_Calling the name that's lighter than air_

_Who's bending down to give me the rainbow_

_Everyone knows it's Angie_

_Who's trippin' down the streets of the city_

_Smilin' at everybody she sees_

_Who's reaching out to capture the moment_

_Everyone knows it's Angie_

Angela finally arrived at the jail. She walked inside where the warden sat at his desk, staring her up and down.

"What do you want, girlie?" He asked. "Visiting hours are over."

"I'm looking for my friends," Angela said. "I'm looking for five green guys," she added, not knowing how else to describe them.

"Ain't you got ears?" The warden asked. "This ain't a freakin' tea party. Visiting hours are over! Go home and come back tomorrow."

Angela sighed. "Maybe you misunderstood me," she said. She reached between her cleavage and pulled out several hundred dollar bills. The warden's eyes widened. "I'm not visiting. I'm here to bail out my friends."

"That _does_ make a difference," the warden said as he pocketed the money. "Follow me," he said as he grabbed a big, bulky set of keys and led Angela behind a huge metal door and down a cold hallway past criminals sitting in their jail cells. Some stared at Angela as though she were an alien, and others stared down at the floor as though they'd given up. The set of keys jangled and clank with every step, the criminals in the cells wondering if that sound would mean freedom. Angela felt a chill run up her spine. She had a difficult time believing that her little cousin had spent a little time in this place.

"Those are the guys," Angela said as she pointed to the cell at the end of the hallway. The Gangrene Gang rested in a heap on the ground, still reeling from their recent beating.

"This little lady just paid your bail," the warden said as he unlocked the cell. "You're free to go."

"That was fast," Ace said. "How long were we in here for?"

"A little under two hours," the warden said. "Now go home."

"Thankssss for doing that," Snake said to Angela. "Ssssorry we have to walk home. We lost our car."

As the gang left the jail, Ace realized that there were a lot of advantages to having Angie around. He didn't recall ever spending only two hours in a jail cell. One of these days, he would have to do something to thank her.

**Author's Note: By now, you are probably wondering where my inspiration for Angela came from. I came up with the idea of a female addition to the Gangrene Gang when I was eight years old. Back then, I had a very specific idea of what I would be like as a teenager. Of course, I turned out to be nothing like Angela (except for the incessant restlessness) which is probably a good thing. Angela's name comes from a girl who was in my English class last semester who I found somewhat irritating, but also very kind. Angela is also a play on the word "angel" which is supposed to be a stark contrast to Angela's personality. **


	8. Power Lunch, Take Two

**SuperSailorCharon: When I was a kid, Power Lunch was my FAVORITE episode! So I thought it'd be neat to redo it with Angela. I had to buy the episode on iTunes so I could watch it and get inspiration, but it was well-worth it. I do not own The Powerpuff Girls. However, I claim 100% ownership of Ace's shades. I don't own the theme from **_**The Wizard of Oz**_** either. Enjoy!**

A little over a week after the infamous incident at the park went by and much to the delight of every crook, criminal, and bad guy in Townsville, the Powerpuff Girls were out of the state for the weekend because Professor Utonium was visiting his parents and decided to bring the girls with him. Everyone knew that whenever the Powerpuff Girls were away, crime rates went through the roof. The Gangrene Gang and Angela walked the streets of Townsville that day wondering what mayhem and chaos they could cause. After all, while the cats were away, the mice would play.

Of course, Ace knew that nothing was going to get done if Angie, Big Billy, Lil Arturo, Snake, and Grubber wouldn't quit skipping and singing up and down the sidewalks, leaving big gaping holes in their wake thanks to Big Billy's size.

"Weee're off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz! He kindly is a wiz of a wiz there ever oh is there was. If ever oh ever a wiz there was…" they sang before Big Billy cut them off interrupting loudly, "I gotta wiz!"

They stopped skipping and Angela groaned, "Can't you hold it in?"

There was silence for a moment before Billy said, "Never mind. I don't gotta wiz no more."

"Ew," Angela said quickly before changing the subject. "Okay, so what should we do?"

"Wessss could go around giving people wedgiessss," Snake suggested.

"Nah, we did that yesterday," Ace reminded him.

"Oooh! The circus is in town!" Arturo cried excitedly. "We could sneak in and make fun of the albino knife thrower and the bearded lady!"

"No thankssss," Snake said uneasily. "The ssssircussss makessss me nervoussss." Snake hissed a lot more when he was feeling anxious, and any mention of the circus did just that.

"We could go to the park and play four-square using Lil Arturo as the ball," Angela proposed.

"Why do you always gotta pick on me, Angie?" Arturo asked.

"I only pick on my favorites," Angela said sardonically.

"You never pick on Big Billy," Billy reminded her. "Is Big Billy _not_ your favorite?"

"Shut up!" Ace interrupted. "Let's think of somethin' to do instead of wasting time!"

Grubber blew a raspberry as though throwing in a suggestion. Angela still couldn't understand Grubber, but Ace merely waved off Grubber's idea.

"Nah, we don't have the car anymore, so that would never work," Ace said. Angela would never know what Grubber was suggesting, but it was probably a great idea.

"We could rob the convenience store like we did that one time and get superpowers!" Arturo eagerly suggested.

"Yeah, but we need the Powerpuff Girls to hit us with the lasers," Ace reminded him. "Besides, it only lasts until we hafta take a dump."

Angela was intrigued.

"Superpowers?" Angela inquired.

Ace told her the story of when they tied up the convenience store clerk at the Circle J and began devouring everything in the store. When the Powerpuff Girls chased them down, they shot the Gangrene Gang with their laser vision causing something very weird to happen.

Of course, Angela was only half paying attention while Ace was talking to her. Instead, she was smiling and nodding as she lost herself in wondering what his eyes were like.

"Well," Angela said slyly, "if you _really_ need a laser, I think I have something that _might_ work just as well."

Angela reached down her tube top and pulled out a laser gun. Ace wasn't sure which was more impressive: how she was able to get something like that in the first place, or how she was able to store so much down there when she wasn't very well-endowed above the waist.

"Whoa!" Snake gasped. "Where'd youssss find that?"

"Let's just say that I was able to steal from a certain evil monkey," Angela told them discreetly.

Of course, that was only half true. Angela didn't steal from Mojo Jojo. A cutaway shows Angela knocking on Mojo Jojo's door and asking him if he had any weapons he didn't want anymore.

"It's probably not the same kind of laser, but I think it should work," Angela said. "And if it does, it'll be awesome sauce."

"Mmmmmm, Big Billy likes sauce!" Big Billy said as he smacked his lips loudly.

"So what are we's waitin' for?" Ace asked getting excited. "Let's go!"

Luckily, at the Circle J, the clerk wasn't the same guy that the Gangrene Gang beat up and tied up before the first time they tried this. It was a newer, younger worker that probably hadn't been working at Circle J for very long, so it was very easy to beat him up and duct tape him to the wall. Angela stuffed a donut in the clerk's mouth as a makeshift gag.

"What'd you do that for?" Ace asked. "We coulda just used the duct tape!"

"I thought, you know, maybe he'd get hungry watching us empty the contents of this store," Angela said as she shrugged her shoulders. Ace smacked his forehead before making a beeline for the slushy machine. Angela cracked open a box of Red Hots. Two seconds later, she could hear Ace yelling in pain over at the slushy machine. She looked over at him and tried to stop herself from laughing.

"Psh, I never get brain freeze," Angela scoffed as she polished off the rest of the box. She loved Red Hots and went back for a second helping before scarfing down some chips with a bottle of the hottest salsa she could get her hands on.

"Guysss, I'm getting full," Snake announced ten minutes later after stuffing himself with as much taffy as he could eat.

"Me too," Arturo agreed.

"Arturo, you just stuffed yourself with coffee!" Angela protested. "You know, that stuff stunts your growth, but I see you don't have to worry about that very much, now do you?"

"I hate you, Angie," Arturo pouted.

They walked out of the convenience store without bothering to release the poor guy that they duct taped to the wall. They laughed hysterically as the clerk tried to free himself from the wall without any luck.

"Okay, so whose gonna get hit with the gun first?" Angela asked as she pulled the laser gun out from her tube top.

"Oh, oh, do me!" Ace volunteered.

"Um, eww," Angela said quickly. "Not here in broad daylight." Ace, who was normally very one-track minded, couldn't understand why she was disgusted. "Why don't we all just stand together and I'll point that laser at all of us?" She suggested.

They agreed as they gathered around Angela, who held the laser in her hand and aimed it straight on at herself and her friends who surrounded her. She pulled the trigger and a red, hot beam of light shot out, engulfing them all.

"Are youssss sure thissss is gonna worksss?" Snake asked nervously.

Angela didn't answer. It was too late to back out now, but she had a very bad feeling that with this venture, she had ordered more than she could eat. She couldn't ever recall a time in which she was in so much pain as a searing, burning sensation radiating from her core dominated every fiber of her being. She wondered if she and the other members of the gang would burst like rotten fruits right here and right now, and in Hell, the six of them would be sitting around a fiery inferno asking each other where they went wrong.

"MAKE IT STOP!" Big Billy wailed. Angela released the trigger as the six of them collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain.

Angela didn't feel any different. That is, until a split second later when she felt unusually warm. She slowly rose to her feet.

The warmth became uncomfortable, almost unbearable. The last time she remembered being this warm was when she was Princess's age and she developed a fever that landed her in the hospital. Pity. It was probably one of the few times in her life in which her parents paid attention to her.

The warmth became more comfortable. In fact, Angela was embracing it. Her soul was on fire and she liked it. She watched as her pale flesh turned bright red. She was so fascinated with the change that she didn't notice Ace had just sneezed and froze a nearby garbage can. She also didn't notice Snake craning his neck in a disturbing way around her.

"Hey Angie!" Snake said, trying to get Angela's attention. Angela nearly jumped back when she noticed Snake had managed to stretch his neck away from the rest of his body. "We all gotsssss the same powersss we did last timessss! Watch!" Snake stretched around a telephone pole as a means of showing off.

Angela looked around at her friends. Ace's normally green flesh was instead an icy shade of blue. He was asking Grubber if he'd gotten the same powers as last time, and in response, Grubber let out a nasty belch that was probably loud enough to be heard from fifty miles away. Angela looked at the mass of grey rock that was Big Billy and asked, "Why did Big Billy turn into a rock? What kinda power is _that_?"

"What power did youssss get?" Snake asked as his spindly body craned around.

Angela was growing irritated with Snake, so she backhanded him. She didn't realize that by doing so, flames shot out of her wrists and into her hands. Snake jumped back and yelped from the pain of being burnt in the face.

"Angie's got fire powers!" Arturo pointed out as he dashed about quickly.

Angela took her palm below her lips as though she were blowing a kiss and more flames shot out.

"Oh hell yeah!" Angela cried. "I could get _used_ to this!"

"Don't," Ace told her. "You know it ain't gonna last."

"Well let's not just _stand_ here!" Angela cried. "Let's go do something fun while we still have superpowers!"

"I'll race ya!" Arturo challenged as he sped down the sidewalk like a speed racer. Angela couldn't run very fast, but everywhere she went, she left a trail of flaming cyclones in her wake.

_She's hot_, Ace thought to himself as he watched Angie torch several buildings. _She's real hot. _

Shooting a trail of ice out of his hands, Ace followed the others as he quickly slid by. "For the next few hours," he announced, "this town is _ours_!"

He was about to go into the First Bank of Townsville and tell everyone to "freeze" before trapping them in a block of ice, just like he did the last time. But to his surprise, Angie had already beaten him there.

"Gimme the money," Angela demanded, "or I'm burning this place to the ground."

Ace watched as the teller nervously counted up the hundred dollar bills and put them in a burlap bag with a dollar sign on it before handing it off to Angela. He grinned approvingly as flames shot out of Angela's small, square hands, allowing the building to slowly burn.

"Nice move, Angie," Ace said favorably. If Angela wasn't already flushed with fever before, she certainly was now. "Now let's go!"

They took the money and ran as wailing sirens from fire trucks and squad cars blared down the street. Of course, they wouldn't need to worry if Grubber was belching loud enough to send the vehicles spinning through the air before crashing to the ground.

Ace and Angela caught up with Snake, who was draped in thousands of dollars worth of bling. He must've just been to the jewelry store.

"Awesomeness!" Angela complimented, admiring the giant diamond dollar-sign that hung around Snake's neck. "You finally got some bling to match your pimp-walk!"

"Thankssss!" Snake said as he was admiring his reflection in a puddle caused by a damaged fire hydrant, most likely one that Big Billy crushed. Snake stretched over and picked Big Billy off the sidewalk.

"Watch thissss!" Snake cried.

A block away at a pickle cart, the Mayor was ordering a large dill pickle to enjoy.

"Can I get anything else for you?" Asked the vender.

"Oh! Well, eh, sure!" The Mayor said. "Do you have any of those little sweet gherkins? I always _loved_ those!"

The vender was about to hand the Mayor a small jar of sweet pickles. Of course, the Mayor would never get them. In that instant, Snake dropped Big Billy on top of the pickle cart, thus crushing the poor vender and all of his merchandise.

"Nooooo!" The Mayor cried out in fury and horror.

A few more hours flew by faster than Lil Arturo could run, and the super-Gangrene Gang managed to cover a lot of ground. They looted as many places as they could and caused massive collateral damage to almost every building in the city. The only buildings that, not surprisingly, still remained intact were the Circle J, the pizza shop, and the arcade. Anything else that was left was in the process of burning to the ground.

Angela couldn't help but laugh at how messed up Townsville was. In Cityville, if she and the gang tried to pull a stunt like this, the military would probably get involved.

"Hehe," Ace laughed as the other members of the Gangrene Gang looked pleased with their efforts. They stood amongst the rubble and admired the damage they left in their wake. "Not bad, boys!"

"Ahem!" Angela coughed, reminding him that there was a female among them.

"Oh, and eh, you too, Angie!" Ace added quickly.

Suddenly, Angie felt a sickening feeling deep down in her core.

"I don't feel so great," Angie said uneasily. "It feels like my stomach is gonna fall out of my ass."

"Oh God, me too!" Arturo moaned.

"Aww, you meansss it'ssss over?" Snake said in disappointment.

"Big Billy gotta take a dump," Big Billy announced.

Luckily, there were six porta-potties nearby, and so each of them went into one. Meanwhile, the police surrounded the porta-potties while the police chief announced into a megaphone, "Townsville police! We have you surrounded! Come out of the porta-potties with your hands up!"

It was then that the door to the porta-potty on the end creaked open and Angela poked her head out slightly as she yelled, "Oh my God! Wait your turn!" She slammed the door and there was complete silence.

The next day, the Powerpuff Girls returned to Townsville, horrified at the damage they were being exposed to as the Professor attempted to drive up the cracked roads in his little white car.

"Whoa!" Buttercup cried. "Something _crazy_ happened here!"

"Unfortunately, this is what happens when we leave for the weekend," Blossom sighed.

"Hey look!" Bubbles pointed out. "It's the Mayor! Aww and he looks so sad!"

"Stop the car, Professor!" Blossom demanded. "Come on girls, we gotta find out from the Mayor what happened here!"

The Professor allowed the car to come to a screeching halt as the girls bolted out of the car and landed in front of the Mayor.

"Oh! Hello girls!" The Mayor greeted, oblivious that anything had happened. "Did you have a nice visit with the Professor's mom and dad?"

"No time for that, Mayor!" Blossom said quickly. "Something happened while we were gone to cause all this damage and we wanna know what!"

"Damage?" The Mayor asked as though he had no clue what Blossom was talking about. "Oh!" His oblivion turned to rage as he raved, "The Gangrene Gang somehow got superpowers and they completely crushed my favorite pickle cart!"

"Oh no, how'd they get superpowers _again_?" Buttercup asked irately.

"At least it was probably funny when they realized their powers didn't last forever," Bubbles giggled.

"But it _wasn't_ funny!" The Mayor protested. "They had superpowers and this time, there was a _girl_ with them and she had powers too!"

"A _girl_?" The Powerpuff Girls asked in unison.

"Psh, what girl would wanna hang out with _them_?" Buttercup asked bitterly.

"You did!" Bubbles reminded her.

Suddenly, a monster came crashing through whatever was left of the downtown area. This monster had scaly pink skin, ten eyes, and a giant horn on top of its head.

"You can explain later!" Blossom cried. "Right now, we got work to do! Come on girls!"

A few hours later, the Gangrene Gang found themselves sitting in a jail cell, this time with Angela sitting with them. Ace couldn't decide which was more irritating: the fact that Angie wouldn't be able to bail them out this time, or the fact that they were able to repair the jail so fast.

They all sat there quietly moping, when Angela broke the silence with, "Oh boy, did we ever fuck up." The guys didn't say much. They just sort of nodded in agreement. "That was fun though! Let's do that again!"

They all agreed that it was the best few hours of their lives. Finally, two huge guys in the cell next to them shouted, "Keep it down in there!"

"Sorry," Angela quickly said. She looked at them. They looked like they could've been body builders.

"What're you in for?" The guys asked her.

"Causing massive collateral damage," Angela replied. "You?"

"We were framed for taking a car radio and beating up a girl," one of them replied angrily. Angela then looked very, very nervous and the rest of the gang couldn't figure out why.

"Keep it down in there!" Shouted the warden.

"How long do we have to stay in here for?" Angela asked.

"Until the next chapter," the warden replied.

"Oh, in that case, we don't have to wait very long, do we?" Angela said relieved.


	9. La Vie En Rose

**SuperSailorCharon: I do NOT own the Powerpuff Girls or "La Vie En Rose". That song belongs to Edith Piaf and although I love Celine Dion's version, no one beats Edith! Let's go!**

The morning after the Gangrene Gang and Angela were released from prison, Angela woke up as the sunlight hit her face. It was nice to wake up under her cozy little comforter on the cheap mattress and not in a cold jail cell. She glanced around and noticed that the others were still asleep.

She sat up and realized her chest felt very heavy and sore. At first she thought she was having a heart attack until she realized the pain was concentrated in her breasts. Or rather, what little she had.

"Oh _no_," Angela groaned to herself in horror. This could only mean one thing: her breasts would start getting bigger, which would mean that the other guys would _definitely_ take notice.

Angela thought for a moment. It wouldn't be so bad if Ace would stare below her neck. The mere thought made her turn fluorescent red. But the _others_? Angela shuddered; the other guys were cool, but they were _so_ not her type.

That's when Angela stopped to ask herself what her type was, anyway. After all, she would be fifteen in a few months, and she hadn't had much exposure to the opposite gender on account of the fact that she had only attended all-girls schools for most of her life.

Angela rolled her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. The others weren't awake yet and wouldn't be for a few more hours. Then an idea came to her. She crept out of her space on the floor and quietly tiptoed out of the room and out the door.

Maybe male attention _wouldn't_ be such a bad thing after all.

A few hours later, the Gangrene Gang sat around watching TV. Instead of watching TV on the puny little six inch television set they were used to using, they were able to steal a nice plasma screen with Angela's help. Of course, they were then starting to wonder where she was

"Anyone seen Angie?" Arturo asked while Snake and Grubber argued over the remote. They stopped fighting and looked at Arturo. "I haven't seen her all day."

"Who knows?" Ace responded as he shrugged his shoulders casually. Of course, he knew it wasn't like Angie to just disappear without saying anything unless something happened to her.

Their questions were answered when Angela walked through the door. Their jaws fell to the floor.

Angela was wearing a white halter dress with a pink flower on the collar and a pink sash around the waist. The dress was very tight around her chest, making what little chest Angela had more pronounced. None of the Gangrene Gang could take their eyes off of her.

Ace was tempted to get mad at Angie for spending their money on something like that. Then again, he was pretty sure she spent nothing. And even if she did, he couldn't complain because he liked what he was looking at.

Angela couldn't stop grinning; all teenage boys had to do was look at some curves and turn into bigger idiots than they already were. Even though Angela wasn't used to the attention she was getting from them, she couldn't deny that it was entertaining.

"Oh, so you like what you see?" Angela asked shyly. She was carrying a very expensive black and white designer handbag.

"So how much _was_ all this stuff?" Ace wanted to know. Now he was almost certain she stole all of it.

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know?" Angela asked as she winked at him. She tried to ignore the others, her focus only on him.

_Down boy, down boy_, Ace thought to himself and his lower appendage as beads of sweat formed on his brow.

"Wanna see what else I got?" Angela asked. The others didn't say a word; they merely nodded as Angela reached down her dress and pulled out all sorts of very, very expensive jewelry. She slapped it all down on the table as Grubber horded it all to himself, lapped it up with his freakishly long tongue, and swallowed it all.

"God dammit, Grubber!" Ace said furiously as Grubber belched.

"Oh, don't you worry, Ace," Angela said as she set her handbag down on the table and pulled out even more jewels as well as an mp3 player and a few cell phones.

"How'd youssss _get _all thissss?" Snake asked as his eyes widened.

"Let's just say I've gotten really, really good at robbing people blind," Angela told him.

"I'll say you have!" Arturo cried.

Ace couldn't take his eyes off of Angie. This was one of those days in which she was being absolutely brilliant rather than being absolutely annoying.

And even then, there were days he didn't mind humoring her childish antics.

The gang didn't just enjoy having Angela steal for them. Angela realized she was absolutely right about how being the only girl in the gang would have its own affect on the guys sooner or later. The entire day and into that evening, they wouldn't leave her alone. While Ace went to pick up dinner, Snake, Arturo, Grubber, and Big Billy all vied for Angela's affection.

"Hey Angie!" Snake said as he handed Angela a wilting bouquet of weeds he picked out of a crack in the sidewalk. "I picked thessssse for youssss!"

Angela looked up at him. She was sitting against the wall listening to music on the mp3 player she stole and didn't notice Snake was in front of her right away. She stood up and took the pathetic crumple of weeds.

"Uh, thanks," Angela said, trying to be polite.

"Angie! I beat up some kid and took his lunch money, just for you!" Arturo cried eagerly as he handed Angela a few quarters.

"Aww, how sweet Arturo! Thank you," Angela said in awe. She couldn't resist Lil Arturo's kindness towards her.

"Big Billy doesn't want Angie to move," Big Billy said as he swept Angela off her feet causing her to drop the flowers and the coins. "Big Billy will carry Angie to wherever she wants to go!"

"Gee, thanks Billy, but I don't need any help getting anywhere," Angela said. This attention was making her a little uneasy now. It was too much all at once. "Please put me down."

"Okay!" Big Billy cried as he dropped Angela on the ground. She landed flat on her bottom. "Wanna know a secret?"

"Sure?" Angela said uneasily.

Big Billy lifted up his orange bangs that covered the top half of his face revealing one bright blue eye. Angela bit her lower lip to keep from screaming in shock. How was she supposed to know that one of the guys she had been living with for the last three weeks was a Cyclops?

"Come on Big Billy, that's just nasty!" Arturo cried.

Grubber managed to silence the entire room by contorting his body so that he stood up straight. His face was no longer droopy, but instead he looked like a handsome young man. He began to speak with perfect elocution. Angela needed a moment to pick her jaw off the floor.

"Why William!" Grubber gasped in horror. "That is _no _way to treat a lady!"

"Sorry," Big Billy said slowly with guilt.

"Now, fair lady, allow me to serenade you!" Grubber offered as he walked over to the table and picked up a violin. He began to play just as he did in "Buttercrush".

"Has he _always_ been able to do that?" Angela asked Arturo and Snake in a hushed voice.

"Sometimesssss," Snake said. "Only when he wantsssss to, thoughsss."

When Grubber was finish playing a beautiful waltz, Snake wiped away a tear of appreciation and Angela applauded.

"That was wonderful, Grubber!" Angela approved.

"And now, dear lady, I believe I shall give you a kiss," Grubber said. He inched towards Angela. In a panic, Angela dashed from the room.

"Was it something I said?" Grubber asked. His body then snapped back into its normal, hunched state as he blew a big raspberry.

Ace walked through the door with a large pizza box in hand. He set it down on the table.

"Where's Angie?" Ace asked. "She's always the first one to know when I bring home pizza."

"I think we scared her, Ace," Arturo said ruefully.

"_What?!_" Ace asked.

"We wassss only trying to be nissssse to her," Snake said. Ace clocked his right-hand man before smacking his forehead in frustration.

"Big Billy thinks Angie's pretty," Big Billy said slowly.

"Yeah, she's really hot," Arturo agreed. Grubber blew a raspberry as though seconding the emotion.

"Too bad she'ssss gotsssss no titsss yet," Snake said. Of course, his comment was met with a blow to the nose. "I mean, I think she likes you, Ace," Snake quickly said as he rubbed his aching face.

Ace didn't say anything. He _knew_ Angie was infatuated with him. He knew from the first time she saw him that she liked him.

"Look, why don't yous guys eat. I'll be right with you," he said. The other guys looked really confused as their leader disappeared from the room.

Angela sat on the roof of the wooden shack staring up at the waning crescent moon. As much as she enjoyed the attention she was getting from the other guys, she had never had it happen before. The newness of it all was too much at once. Did _all_ teenage guys get this way every time they saw a cute girl? Or was it just because of the fact that she was the only girl that would even actually get _near_ them? Either way, she needed a moment to breathe. Little did she realize that Ace was right behind her.

Ace was watching her quietly. He remembered the first time he met her, how he thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of her little crush on him. Ace knew nothing about Angie, but he knew for a fact that wherever she was from, she was especially naïve. The fact that she was using her femininity to rob people blind had to have been due to sheer dumb luck; there was no other way to explain it. Either way, he liked that about her. He would just end up using her abilities and her trust in him to his advantage so he and his friends could take over the city that spurned them.

Of course, there were a lot of other things about Angie that Ace had learned to like. What would be the point of taking advantage of her feelings when the feeling was mutual?

If he were to take over Townsville tomorrow and become the king, Ace knew exactly who he would pick as his queen.

"So eh, do you come here often?" Ace asked as he sat next to Angela on the roof of the shack.

"I just needed a break was all," Angela said. "I'm okay."

"It's awfully cold out here, ya know," Ace told her.

"I know," she nodded.

"You know Angie, you're not like other girls I know," Ace pointed out. "No one would know it, but you're pretty tough. And it don't hurt that yous know how to have fun," he added with a slightly devilish grin.

Angela glanced over at him as her heart began to beat a little bit harder. She noticed his smile, those fangs. She liked the fact that everything about him was dangerous, even down to his smile.

"Angie, what does a girl like you see in a guy like me?" Ace asked in his usual, charming manner. "I mean, I'm not the kinda guy that you'd bring home to yer mother."

Angela was about to ask how he knew that she saw anything at all in him. Of course, there was no point in trying to play dumb. Instead, she laughed.

"I think it's for that same reason I _do_ like you," Angela laughed. "If I were to bring you home to my mother, she'd take one look at you and…" she was going to say that if her mother got one look at Ace, she'd tell Angela that she was out of the will. Instead, she let the thought trail off before adding, "Well, you get the idea. You're not like anyone else I've ever met in my life. Look, I don't need to tell you what I was doing before I met you guys. But either way, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be."

Ace looked at Angela and he looked at her. Angela longed to know what sort of eyes were behind those shades. Ace lowered his shades to look Angela dead on. His eyes, she observed, were dark and even a little innocent. But at the same time, they seemed to stare right through her soul.

_If your body matches what your eyes can do_, Angela thought. Everything in the scene was moving so quickly yet perfectly frozen at the same time. She had never felt this way before and she never wanted this feeling to end.

Angela yanked Ace's shades out of his possession and put them on.

"Oh my," Angela said seductively as Ace was dumbfounded that she could move so quickly. "I got your shades. Whatcha gonna do about it, hmmm?"

Ace leaned in to her and she leaned in to him. They kissed each other long and passionately. Ace began inching his hands towards Angela's chest until they heard chanting.

"Ace and Angie sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Snake, Lil Arturo, and Big Billy all sang out in unison while Grubber blew raspberries along with the group. Ace and Angela pulled away from each other in horror.

"Beat it!" Ace shouted.

"Wait a second, aren't they's sitting on a roof?" Big Billy pointed out.

"Oh my God," Angela muttered as her face turned beat red. Her first kiss and someone walked in on it. At least it wasn't her _parents_ that walked in.

The rest of the gang disappeared down the hatch that led up to the roof, leaving Angela and Ace alone.

"For the most part, that was amazing," Angela said, giggling.

"Wanna do it again?" Ace asked, adding that grin that Angela knew and loved.

"Do I ever!" Angela squealed.

They kissed each other again. This wasn't the first time Ace had kissed a girl. But it _was_ the first time he'd kissed a girl and felt something other than throbbing below the belt.

Ace wasn't ready to accept the fact that he had a heart, just like any other human being. But maybe one of these days, he would.

They parted as soft, romantic music began to fill the night air. Angela recognized the melody from somewhere before. She remembered an old, solid gold music box that was in her room back at her house. When she was Princess's age, she received it from Grandmother Morbucks for her birthday. That was the last year that Grandmother Morbucks was alive. If Angela thought hard enough, she would remember the words.

Two seconds later, Snake and Grubber popped through the hatch.

"I thought I told you guys to beat it!" Ace yelled.

"Ssssorry Ace!" Snake quickly apologized. "But Grubber swallowed a record player by accident and he needs help!"

Grubber tried to blow a raspberry, but instead, Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" continued to play. Angela couldn't stop laughing because only Grubber could ruin a romantic moment by swallowing a record player.

Random vignettes set to Celine Dion's cover of "La Vie En Rose" reveal Ace and Angela spending time together. The first scene shows Angela flirting with a sales representative in an upscale jewelry shop, thus distracting him so Ace could loot the shop. Afterwards, he places a huge diamond necklace around Angela's neck. The next vignette shows Ace and Angela jumping out of the bushes on Halloween night and scaring little kids out of their Halloween candy before cutting to a scene of Angela and Ace giving Grubber a can of peanuts only for Grubber to open it with foam snakes flying out at him and exploding out in a string of terrified raspberries. Another scene includes the gang spray-painting buildings with Angela painting two giant hearts joined together on a billboard. She turns around to give Ace a wink when she slips and loses her balance. She falls right into Ace's arms as he catches her and they both laugh. The next scene shows the gang at the park playing foursquare utilizing Arturo as the ball before it begins to rain and they leave the park. As they are walking, Ace notices a guy placing his trench coat over a puddle so his girlfriend wouldn't have to walk over it. Ace then commands Big Billy to lie across the puddle and so Ace takes Angela by the hand as they walk across Big Billy who is lying on the ground and laughing hysterically. The two of them then sneak off behind a building and begin to kiss each other passionately as the rain drenches them. The last scene shows Angela and Ace walking in the Townsville mall. Angela walks along the rim of a water fountain when she slips and falls in. She comes back up after floating around in the water for a bit and Ace laughs at her when he notices that her white dress is very, very see-through in the chest. Angela drags him into the water fountain with her and the song ends with the two of them sitting in the fountain laughing.


	10. The Perfect Crime

**SuperSailorCharon: Okay, yes, I know, some people out there aren't fans of anything that ISN'T the Ace/Buttercup pairing. Here's the deal: I saw "Buttercrush" for the first time when I was nine. That pairing made no sense to me before and it doesn't all these years later. (Dodges tomatoes/sharp objects being thrown by the reviewers) Anywho, I do NOT own the Powerpuff Girls or Pacman. Enjoy!**

Mid-November rolled around and nearly all the leaves had blown off the trees into heaping piles on the ground. The Powerpuff Girls had just finished school when Blossom challenged her sisters to a race home.

"Last one there's Mojo Jojo's uncle!" Blossom laughed as she dashed off in her trail of pink.

"No fair!" Buttercup complained. "You totally got a head start!" Impatiently, she darted off in a flash of green to catch up with Blossom.

Bubbles was about to tag along with her sisters when she noticed Princess standing outside the school, waiting for her limo.

"Ugh, late _again_!" Princess whined as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently against the pavement. "It's hard to find good help these days!"

Bubbles quietly approached Princess.

"What do _you_ want?" Princess asked irately. "Can't you see I'm busy waiting for my limo? I'm late for my massage!"

"I'm sorry," Bubbles said, not knowing what else to say. She hated dealing with Princess, but kindness was never something that Bubbles was in short supply of. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about your cousin. I hope the police manage to find her soon, and my sisters and I have been looking for her too."

"Psh, look all you want, but I don't really care," Princess scoffed. "I'm actually _glad_ my cousin ran away. Angela's an embarrassment to the Morbucks family tree and she drives me crazy with her pranks!"

"But she's your _family_!" Bubbles protested. "I'm sure she cares about you a lot. My sisters make me crazy too sometimes, but they'll always be part of my family."

The shiny limousine pulled up to the curb. Princess stepped inside without even saying goodbye. Bubbles just waved to Princess and flew off to join her sisters back at home.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Townsville, Ace was getting excited because he was just about to get the highest score on Pacman on the machine at the Circle J. He'd spent way too much of his time trying to do it, and Angela was starting to feel the sting.

"Yawn!" Angela groaned. "Can we puh-leaze go home now?" She was standing near the door, tapping her foot impatiently. She wasn't the only one who wanted them to leave; the clerk that they tied up a month ago had been watching them nervously all afternoon and couldn't wait until they would get out of the store.

"Hold on a minute, I'm almost done," Ace said. He was down to one life and the Pacman ghosts were starting to turn from dark blue back to their original colors. He was about to have Pacman eat one of the ghosts when instead, the ghost ate Pacman. "Aww damn," he said in frustration as the game ended. "Hey wait a second! Someone got a higher score than I did!"

"And that's supposed to be news to me _how_?" Angela wanted to know.

"Come on, look at this!" Ace urged, motioning for Angela to take a look at the screen. "It's someone whose initials are A, A, M."

"Yes, those are _my_ initials," Angela told him. "I got tired of watching you try and get the highest score so I went ahead and did that. It wasn't hard, really. Now let's _go_!"

Ace was floored; how Angela had managed to get the highest score before he did was beyond him. Much to the relief of the intimidated clerk, Ace followed Angela out of the Circle J. As they were walking, Ace asked, "So whaddyas wanna do tonight?"

"We could TP and egg people's houses," Angela suggested. "And we could silly string people's cars. It wouldn't matter since the college kids always get blamed for that sort of thing anyway."

"Well if we're gonna do that," Ace said, "we gotta go to the store and get those things."

"Sure," Angela said. "And hopefully while we're there, I can pick up some sushi."

"You like raw fish?" Ace asked in disgust. "Babe, that ain't right."

"Sushi is delicious," Angela defended. "Besides, it's good for you."

"Since when'd you care about eatin' rabbit food?" Ace laughed.

"Don't get me wrong, but as much as I like junk food, you get tired of it," Angela admitted. "Don't you guys get tired of pizza and fast food? Fuck, no wonder Big Billy is as fat as he is!"

"Nah, we don't get tired of it," Ace said. "And Big Billy was fat _long_ before we met him."

Angela brushed her stringy brown and gold hair out of her face. As she did, she noticed her hand was tinted green. Her coloring wasn't nearly as vibrant as that of her friends, but it was noticeable.

"Oh God!" Angela panicked. "I'm turning _green_!"

"Whaddya expect?" Ace asked. "You live in the Townsville dump with us and you've been there for two months!"

"Yeah, but that's not gonna turn a person _green_ isn't it?" Angela asked.

"In this city, it might," Ace explained, laughing at Angela's horror. "Most of the toxic waste from the power plant ends up at the dump."

"Isn't that illegal?" Angela wondered. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Maybe, but whaddya expect when you live in a city run by an idiot," Ace replied. He couldn't stop laughing at the horrified looks on Angela's face.

"Will it ever go away?" Angela asked in desperation, not really expecting an answer.

Ace was going to tell her that it wouldn't just to see what her reaction would be, but they were at the grocery store and they piled toilet paper, eggs, silly string, and some sushi for Angela into a large shopping cart. When they were in the checkout line, Angela looked behind her. She noticed an elderly woman with a small shopping basket containing a bottle of prune juice, a package of ginger snaps, and a carton of Egg Beaters.

"I got an idea," Angela whispered to Ace as the cashier was ringing up their purchases. He was a sour-faced older man who merely imagined what these two green-skinned teens were planning on doing with these items. Angela turned around and faced the old woman.

"Excuse me," Angela said sweetly.

"Yes?" Asked the old woman.

"I was wondering if you could do us a favor," Angela said.

"Well, now, that depends," said the older woman with a smile as she studied the green teenagers closely.

"You see, our grandmother died when we were still little children," Angela began sadly. "We've grown up without a grandmother ever since. If we walk out of the store and say, 'Hi Grandma!' will you wave and say, 'Bye kids!'? It would make us feel _so_ happy."

"Well," the old woman said reluctantly. These crazy kids had such bad skin, and they looked pretty pathetic, but they seemed nice enough. "All right."

Ace looked at Angela like she was some kind of genius, and Angela's face flushed beneath her newly green complexion.

The bag guy had just finished putting Angela's dinner and the materials for the Gangrene Gang's night of vandalism into paper bags and into the shopping cart.

"Bye, Grandma!" Angela and Ace called in unison as they left the store.

"That'll be four hundred and seven dollars," the cashier said flatly.

"For these three things?" The puzzled old lady asked.

"Didn't you say that those two were your grandchildren?" The cashier asked. "I see that green skin runs on the other side of the family," he added dryly.

The old lady just stood there, completely bewildered. Of course, Ace and Angela had already booked it out of the store and were on their way back to the dump.

At the wooden shack back at the dump, Lil Arturo and Big Billy were watching TV. Snake was sitting on the floor playing with a mouse that was scampering across the shack. Snake couldn't resist rodents, but Ace hated them with a passion. With Ace away, Snake didn't hesitate to pick up the mouse and stroke its furry grey stomach with his spindly green fingers.

"Ace and Angie still aren't back," Arturo pointed out. "I thought they said they'd be back."

"Big Billy misses Ace and Angie," Big Billy added sadly.

"I don't getsss it," Snake said as he patted the mouse on the head. "I know Angie'sss hot, but how come Ace has to ssspend all hisssss time with hersss?"

Snake didn't have to wonder anymore, because Ace and Angela walked through the front door toting paper bags filled with the materials needed for a night of debauchery. Angela had already eaten the sushi on the way back to the dump in an attempt to watch Ace turn every shade of green imaginable. That is, if he weren't _already_ green.

"Snake, put the damn rat down," Ace snapped as soon as he saw Snake petting the mouse. Snake sadly let the mouse run free on the wooden floor as it scurried out the open door. "God, that's _disgusting_."

"Makes you wonder how you live with us," Angela giggled. "You have a girlfriend that likes raw fish and your friend picks up mice and just pets them. We're just disgusting."

Ace was about to say something when Grubber showed up through the front door. He blew a raspberry as though making a very important announcement.

"Whaddya mean you got the car back?" Ace asked in disbelief.

"You got the car back?" Angela asked eagerly.

"Awesome! How'd you do that?" Arturo asked.

Grubber blew many raspberries as though telling a very elaborate story. When he was finished, Ace said, "Yep. That's what I thought. The valet parking thing never fails."

"Billy wanna go for a ride!" Big Billy said eagerly.

"Well whadda we waitin' for?" Ace asked. "Let's get outta here!"

They all hopped into the shiny red convertible, just as they'd done before they crashed it and the cops took it away from them. Grubber drove off into the streets of Townsville as excited shouts filled the air. Innocent by-standers shook their heads in disgust as the six green teens sped down the road into the residential part of Townsville throwing eggs at people's houses. Silly string and toilet paper hung from bare trees and rooftops of various homes, vaguely resembling ghosts fluttering in the autumn air. At some of the houses, the gang even went so far as to slash some unsuspecting people's car tires.

It was three in the morning and the gang was going to call it a night as Grubber drove the gang through the wealthiest part of Townsville where billion dollar homes hid behind pearly gates. Angela recognized this part of town all-too well.

"What're we doing here?" Angela asked. "Most of these places are guarded by man-eating hounds or billion dollar security systems."

"That doesn't mean we can't at least _try_!" Arturo argued. "It'd be funny if we pulled a prank on a rich person!"

"It'd be even better if we _stole_ from a rich person," Ace said devilishly. "Man, it'd be like stealin' from a bank, but better! But whatever. Come on Grubber, take us home."

To Angela, that seemed almost like a dare, a challenge. And Angela hated saying no to a challenge. She also hated saying no to a chance to please Ace.

"What if I were to tell you I might know how?" Angela asked slyly.

"You knowssss how to steal from a rich person?" Snake asked, his interest climbing.

"Just one in particular," Angela replied. "Grubber, turn right on this upcoming road."

"Where's Angie taking us?" Big Billy asked. "I hope they have ice cream!"

"Oh, believe me, Big Billy," Angela said confidently, "these people have _lots_ of ice cream."

Angela directed Grubber to the biggest mansion at the end of the road, protected behind gold-plated gates.

"Whoa!" Ace gasped. "Angie, you didn't tell us you know how to steal from the richest people in Townsville!"

"Yesssss," Snake laughed. "Princesssss Morbuckssss, of all people!"

"How do you know them?" Arturo asked.

"It's too long a story for now," Angela replied, her face burning from the horror of what she was about to suggest. She would _never_ steal with her family. But she was head-over-heels in love. If Ace wanted her to waltz right through to the front door and take all the possessions that belonged to her father's younger brother and his daughter, she wouldn't hesitate. Hell, if Ace asked her to, she would figure out how to take the moon right out of the sky for him.

For once, she had someone in her life that she would die for, but someone to care about enough to live for.

"Do you guys _want_ me to steal from Morbucks?" Angela asked. "Because I can if that's what you want."

"Only if you're not afraid of getting caught," Arturo said mockingly. Oh yeah, this sounded like a dare, all right.

"Angie's never been caught before," Ace reminded him. "She's just that good." There was pride in his voice.

Angela's heart flooded with a sense of pride and adrenaline she had never, ever felt before in her life. She needed to stop herself now before she did something she would later regret.

"Let's go home first," Angela suggested. "It's actually safer for me to steal from this place in the middle of the day than at night." It was true: in the middle of every month, Angela knew her uncle would go away on a business trip that lasted for days on end. And if she could figure out how to get inside while Princess was in school, that was all the better.

So that next day, some time before noon, the gang piled into the red convertible and drove back to Morbucks Mansion. They parked outside of the front gate where Angela hopped out. She had her black and white bag with her which she planned to stuff with whatever she could get her hands on.

"Bring back ssssomething good!" Snake said eagerly.

"I got this," Angela said, only half-sure of herself. Even though she was certain her uncle was away and it was Tuesday morning meaning Princess would be in school, Angela couldn't bear the thought of what would happen if she were to get caught. "If I were you guys though, I'd drive out of this area and come back in an hour. The fact that a bunch of green guys are driving around this part of town in broad daylight is enough to really freak some people out."

"We'll lay low," Ace promised. "I'm proud of ya, babe." Angela could hear her heart smacking against her ribcage both from fear and from the rush of hearing Ace tell her he was proud of her. "Come on Grubber, let's get outta here."

Grubber nodded as he blew a raspberry. The gang drove off into the morning.

Angela could hear blood crashing through her ears as she punched the code into the keypad on the gate. The gates creaked open as she did a double-take to ensure no one was watching. It was impossible to believe that this is where her adventure began and now she was right back where she started. But she wasn't Angela Morbucks anymore; Angela had long, curly, dark hair and very pale skin. Instead, she was someone completely different, and if she were to get arrested for robbing from her own uncle's house, boy, that would be a story to tell.

Light on her feet, Angela quickly and quietly hurried up to the front step. She took the spare keys out from under the mat and unlocked the front door before disappearing inside. She thanked her lucky stars that Jeeves (or any of the other servants for that matter) were out of plain sight. They were either cleaning rooms or answering the telephone.

Angela swiftly moved down the hallways, not sure where to begin. She could start with her room. The servants wouldn't even touch it until they knew that precious little Angela returned. Little did they realize, of course, that she had. Besides, it wasn't really stealing if Angela was taking from _herself_.

She took a deep breath and looked around. The room was no longer littered with traces of hair products like it was when she left and it no longer smelled like hair dye. It looked just as it did when she first arrived from Cityville back in September.

Angela quickly stuffed her favorite diamond jewelry down her bra. She cracked open her piggy bank and took whatever money was in there before running down the hallway.

Another half an hour went by. Angela managed to steal some silverware from the kitchens (her uncle had so many that there would be no way he would ever miss it). She filched some of the small ivory statuettes that decorated the coffee tables in the sitting rooms, thinking that she could probably sell them for a decent amount of money. They somehow fit in her black and white bag along with a few bottles of expensive wine from Daddy Morbucks' liquor cabinet and a few ray guns from Princess's warehouse of weapons. She even managed to take a few containers of ice cream from the ice cream freezer that Daddy Morbucks installed for Princess.

The more Angela stole, the more a rush of pure adrenaline surged through her veins. She imagined it was a little like playing the biggest slot machine in the casino and winning every time, the thrill getting more and more intense every time the blinking lights flashed upon hitting the jackpot.

With ten minutes until the gang would be back in front of the mansion in their convertible, Angela was about to sprint out the front door in an attempt not to get caught. She hurried through the corridor and stopped in front of the long entranceway that led to the gold vault. Angela smiled as she remembered how she would build a fort out of gold bricks and attack Princess when she came to fetch her.

Stealing from the vault? That was definitely a risk. Only her uncle knew how to open the vault and the door that led to it, as far as he knew. Angela braced herself as she took out a hair pin. She began picking the lock until the door creaked open. She tiptoed down the hallway and gently twisted the tumbler that opened the vault. Crossing her fingers, Angela prayed that none of the servants could hear it open.

Quickly, Angela picked up as many bars of gold as she could carry and stuffed what she couldn't in whatever room was left in her handbag. She would have to work quickly because time was not on her side. That, and the ice cream was melting and she didn't want it to get all over the inside of her bag.

When Angela couldn't carry anymore, she fled the vault and shut the door behind her. She could've sworn she heard it slam shut. Either way, she had to hurry. She raced down the stairs and down the hallway, praying that no one would see her.

The red convertible pulled up as Angela punched in the code on the keypad that opened the gate. She hopped into the car.

"All right, Angie!" Arturo cried. "What'd you steal? Anything good?"

"Oh boy, did I ever," Angela said. "Now let's get the hell outta here!"

Grubber slammed on the gas as they sped away. Little did they realize that a shiny limo was actually right behind them.

Princess sat in the back seat and noticed the red convertible of green hooligans speed off into the afternoon.

"Psh, what're _they_ doing here?" Princess asked herself. "Can't they understand that this neighborhood is for people with _money_?"

A few moments later, Princess walked up to the front door of her home as the double-doors swung open. Jeeves was in the parlor waiting for her as usual.

"Miss Princess, I thought that was _you_ who was here earlier," Jeeves said. "I heard the front gates open an hour ago and I assumed you had forgotten something. I would have assisted you, but I was on the telephone with your father. He's coming home tomorrow night."

"Wait, someone was _here_ earlier?" Princess asked in disbelief.

Jeeves stood there looking dumbfounded.

"But if that wasn't _you_ who was here earlier, than who was…" Jeeves asked in disbelief.

"Whatever," Princess said rolling her eyes. She quickly hustled up the staircase towards her room. She added to herself, "As long as they didn't take anything, who cares?"

Of course, Princess noticed the door leading to her daddy's gold vault was creaked open slightly. Only one other person besides her daddy knew how to open it.

"ANGELA!" Princess screamed at the top of her lungs.

She had no idea where Angela was or why she came back. But for some reason, she remembered the red convertible of green teenagers. Princess wasn't paying attention, so she didn't see Angela. But she had an inkling that Angela was among them.

Back at the Gangrene Gang's hideout at the dump, the gang sat around getting smashed on the booze that Angela brought back and Big Billy was having a ball devouring one of the cartons of ice cream (this particular flavor was pistachio, Big Billy's favorite).

"Oh man, Angie!" Ace cried as he patted his girl on the shoulder. He took a drink of the expensive wine Angela stole and added, "This stuff's insane! Who knew you knew how to steal from rich people!"

"Big Billy like ice cream!" Big Billy announced happily.

Grubber took a swig from the wine bottle as he blew a raspberry.

"Seriously, Angie, I'm real proud of ya," Ace added.

Ace's words were slightly slurred, but Angela didn't care. Her conscience was gnawing loudly at her soul, but that didn't matter. Seeing the only people she ever considered friends having a good time was all that mattered to her, and even better was the approval of the one who had her heart. To quiet her guilt, Angela downed an entire bottle of wine by herself. She was slightly deaf to the sounds of her friends cheering at how quickly she could pound her liquor.

"Sssssooo are youssss gonna steal again tomorrowsss?" Snake asked.

But Angela didn't hear him.

"Guys, I'm gonna go to bed," Angela slurred. "I don't feel so good," she added. She vomited on Snake's shows and then everything went black.

"That'sssss nasssssty!" Snake hissed in revolt as he tried to kick the vomit off his shoes. Grubber just lapped the puke up with his tongue and belched.

"No, that's nasty!" Arturo pointed out. "Is Angie gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, she just drank too much is all," Ace said. "She'll be fine tomorrow."

Ace carefully lifted Angela up off the ground. He wasn't sure what came over him. Before Angie came into his world, if a girl passed out in front of him, he probably would've either kicked her a few times, or if he was _really_ in the mood, he would've had his way with her. But instead, Ace just stared at the glazed look on Angie's unconscious face. He carried her into the next room and gently laid her down on her mattress. He didn't realize the other guys had been watching him.

"Whoa, Ace's gone ssssoft," Snake gasped. Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement.

Normally, Ace would've told them to shut up or something of that nature, but that didn't matter to him. Instead, he just joined the other guys back in the next room as they spent the rest of the night finishing the booze and the ice cream.

And that was when Ace realized that he did, in fact, have a heart. And it belonged to nobody but Angie.

**Author's Note: Now wasn't that cute? Just thought I'd like to add that the reference to Snake's affection for rodents was inspired by **_**Not Easy**_** by tarajcl. I don't own that fanfic, but it's a damn good fanfic! **


	11. The Jig is Up

**SuperSailorCharon: I don't own the Powerpuff Girls or Summertime Killer from Kill Bill. However, I do recommend listening to that song while reading a particular scene in this chapter! Anyway, enjoy!**

Angela rubbed her aching head when she heard a loud thumping on the door. It sounded like someone repetitively punching a thin block of wood. She slowly rose from the mattress and trudged over to answer it. Her eyes widened when she saw who stood there.

"Princess?" Angela gasped. "How'd you know where to find me?"

"ANGELA ABIGAIL MORBUCKS!" I KNOW you stole from my daddy!" Princess screamed. "You're the only one who knows how to open the vault so I _know_ you stole from him! And don't think I don't know it's you just because you have a sloppy dye job and a bad complexion."

"Princess, please, I can explain," Angela begged. Angela didn't notice that Ace was standing right next to her.

"Babe, why's there a five year old yellin' at ya?" Ace asked. He put his arms around Angela.

"_Babe_?" Princess asked in disbelief. She couldn't believe her eyes and ears. "You mean _you_ and _her_ are together? That's disgusting! I thought you'd never get a date, Angela!"

"I know it was wrong to steal," Angela said. "You're too young to understand, but maybe one day you will. I did it because I'm in love. I'd give anything to keep Ace happy." Ace didn't say anything in return, but he tightened his hold on his girl.

"Psh, who needs love when you can have cash," Princess scoffed.

"Babe, come on, what's the matter?" Ace asked as he looked into Angela's eyes.

The rest of the gang had woken up and came into the room to see what was going on.

"Princess, I know what I did was wrong, but hear me out," Angela pleaded.

"You _stole_ from your own family!" Princess shrieked. "I may be evil, but _that_'s really low even for _me_."

There was not a closed jaw in the house. The whole gang stared at Angela not knowing what Princess was talking about.

"Sssssooo wait a second," Snake said, "Angie, you stole from your own housssse?"

"It wasn't really my house," Angela quickly explained. "It was my uncle's house."

"Wait, yous guys are _related_?" Ace asked in disbelief.

"Unfortunately," Princess said coolly. "Anyway, now I'm gonna tell daddy that you stole from him and he's coming home tonight and you're gonna be in big trouble!"

"There's no way you're related!" Arturo cried in disbelief.

"No, Arturo, I am," Angela sighed. She lifted up her hair revealing the heart-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck. "Princess is my cousin on my dad's side. I know that when they were looking for me, they said that whoever found me would know it was me by the birthmark." She looked back over at Princess and said, "Princess, I don't get it. Why would you rat me out like this? I love you! I've cared for you since the moment you were born!"

"It's payback time for all the pranks you've pulled on me!" Princess shrieked.

"I thought those were funny!" Angela protested. "Clearly you can't take a joke!"

"Well no one cares anyway, because I know where you are and you're gonna be in big trouble!" Princess threatened as she stomped away and got back into her limo as it drove away from the dump.

There was an awkward silence counted in breaths and heartbeats.

"I guess you'll all want an explanation," Angela said quietly, breaking the silence. No one said anything, but Angela continued, "My name is Angela Abigail Morbucks. My parents happen to be the richest people in Cityville and they sent me here because they were going to be in Paris for a few months. Hell, I have no idea if they're even back yet. They also got tired of dealing with me since I kept getting kicked out of school. I love my uncle and my cousin, but I'm _tired_ of doing things I'm _supposed_ to do. I got bored one night and so I ran away, just so I could pretend to be somebody else for a little while. And then I met you guys. You guys are the only friends I've ever had. I never wanted to go home again."

Everyone continued to stare at Angela. Ace finally shattered the awkward quiet of the moment as he took Angela into his arms and said, "Babe, I don't care where yous came from or how you got here. The point is you're here."

"So wait a second, you're not mad at me for lying?" Angela asked.

"Nah," Ace said. "Don't worry 'bout it. I guess you want us to start callin' ya Angela now?"

"It doesn't matter," Angela laughed. "Angie will be just fine."

"What're youssss gonna do now?" Snake asked. "Princesssss said she was gonna rat you out."

"I don't have a choice," Angela sighed. "Either way, I'll end up in jail, so I'll just cut out the middle-man and turn myself in."

"Angie, you're gonna give up that easily?" Ace asked. "Ya never give up."

"Besides, we're your friends," Arturo said. "If you go down, we go down with you, just like when we got superpowers and took over Townsville for a little bit."

"Big Billy no want Angie to go to jail," Big Billy said firmly. Grubber blew a raspberry as though seconding the emotion.

"Guys, really, that's sweet of you, but I really fucked up and this something I gotta do," Angela said as she started heading towards the door.

"Angie, ya _do_ have a choice," Ace said as Angela was about to walk out.

"Oh?" She asked, not knowing what Ace was talking about.

"You _could_ turn yaself in, or we can get outta here," Ace said. "You and me, Babe. We'll go so far away they'll never find us."

"What?" Angela gasped. Her adventurous side was getting the better of her again, and running away with Ace was starting to sound very enticing.

"I'm serious," he said. "Just you and me. We can get outta Townsville. No one needs this place, anyway."

Angela giggled. "Where would you suggest we go? New York perhaps?" She suggested jokingly, possibly as her way of making fun of Ace's accent.

"Why not?" Ace grinned. "Wherever you wanna go."

Grubber interrupted with a raspberry. Angela couldn't explain how, but it felt as though she could finally understand him.

"Grubber _does_ have a point," Angela agreed. "We're not going to get very far without someone who knows how to drive."

"Oh, and you remember that money you let me borrow?" Arturo reminded her. "I was gonna use it to buy booze for everyone with my fake ID, but I think we're really gonna need it right now. We could use it for, like, motels and stuff."

"_We_?" Ace asked, realizing what Arturo was implying.

"I wantsssss to go too!" Snake cut in.

"Big Billy wanna go for a ride!" Big Billy added excited.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, no one said yous guys was all goin' with us!" Ace pointed out.

"It's fine!" Angela laughed. "Every couple needs a third wheel! Or in this case, a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth wheel! Now let's get the hell outta here before I get caught!"

"Road trip!" Big Billy cried.

The next montage is set to "Summertime Killer" from the _Kill Bill_ soundtrack and shows the gang piling their possessions into the tiny trunk of the convertible and driving off into the sunset, leaving Townsville far behind them as they begin coasting through the desert (I always assumed Townsville was somewhere in California, so we'll just leave it at that).


	12. Gangrene Gang's Cross Country Tour

**SuperSailorCharon: Kudos goes to my sister for assisting me with the coming chapters. I do not own "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas or "I Want You" by Savage Garden. Enjoy the random antics of the Gangrene Gang as they flee from the law. **

By now, the Gangrene Gang had managed to leave Townsville far behind them. As per their usual, Grubber drove, Ace rode shotgun, and Lil Arturo sat on top of Angela's lap in the back seat as they were sandwiched between Big Billy and Snake. They continued to drive through the desert long into the afternoon and into the evening as they passed different cities that none of them had recognized in their lives. The bright lights of the city as Grubber drove the gang on the interstate freeways flashed by them like a crazy disco roller coaster. The entire evening, they'd been singing classic rock songs and had just finished belting out "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas as they drove past bright city lights. The sun slowly began to sink behind the hills.

"No one ever said road trips were a pain in the ass," Ace complained. "We've been sitting all day!"

"Well at least you don't have to sit on Angie's lap!" Arturo retorted. He quickly added apologetically, "No offense, Angie."

"Shut up Arturo," Angela said jokingly. "Actually Ace, if you want, Arturo can have the front and I'll sit on _your_ lap in the backseat."

"Aw, why do you gotta be on top?" Ace complained.

"Because I'm lighter. You're almost seven inches taller than I am and I'm afraid of being crushed under your big bubble butt," Angela said flirtatiously.

"Hey, I do _not_ have a big ass," Ace said defensively.

"Oh yes you do," Angela grinned.

"Big Billy gotta pee!" Big Billy said uncomfortably. Grubber blew a frustrated raspberry.

"Grubber, _please_ pull over!" Angela begged. "I don't care if he has to go behind a bush! Arturo and I have to sit next to him so if he pisses his pants, we're fucked!"

Grubber blew a raspberry as though giving in, and he pulled over on the side of the road. By now, the gang was in a rural desert area, and they weren't quite sure where they were. Grubber pointed to a nearby bush and blew a raspberry, instructing Billy to get out and take care of business behind the bush.

"Big Billy don't wanna go behind a bush," Billy whined.

"Well sucksss to be you," Snake hissed. "Now getsss out!"

Reluctantly, Big Billy trudged out of the car and behind the bush. Of course, since the puny little bush was barely enough to shield Big Billy's tremendous size, the rest of the gang had to avert their eyes away from the bush.

It was dead-silent out in the desert. As Angela looked off into the distance, the silence of the night was shattered by what sounded like buckets and buckets of water being poured out onto the sand. The world went dead-silent again.

Big Billy slowly made his way back to the convertible.

"Big Billy feel better now," Big Billy announced.

"Wow, youssss sssseriously had to go," Snake snickered.

"It sounded like someone dumped a bucket of water in the bush," Arturo added with a laugh.

"That was just nasty," Angela shuddered.

"Billy I told ya not to drink all that juice before we left home!" Ace snapped.

"Big Billy like grape juice. Big Billy wishes for more grape juice!" Big Billy said excitedly.

Ace smacked his hand to his forehead in exasperation. He could tell this was going to be a very, very long trip.

Meanwhile, Princess was sitting smugly in the back of her limo as her daddy sat with her. They were rapidly approaching the city dump.

"See, Daddy? I _told_ you that Angela was an embarrassment to the family! And I know where she's hiding out at!" Princess boasted.

The limo came to a halt in front of the shotgun shack. Rather than waiting for the chauffer to lead her out, Princess threw the door open and raced to the front of the shack where she proceeded to slam her tiny fists against the wooden door.

"ANGELA!" Princess screamed. "YOU AND YOUR FREAKY FRIENDS OPEN THIS DOOR THIS INSTANT!"

No answer.

Princess continued to bang her hands on the door, but finally stopped after a while in fear of ruining her perfect manicure.

"Fine! If that's the way you want it, I'm coming in there myself!" Princess announced lividly.

Princess threw the door open. Her jaw fell to her collarbone when she saw the entire shack was totally darkened and totally empty. She was beside herself with rage.

"ANGELA!" Princess screamed. She didn't notice that Daddy Morbucks had stepped out of the limo and was standing right behind her. She turned around to face her wealthy father, more than a little irked with his daughter for wasting his time.

"But Daddy!" Princess protested. "I _swear_ she was here! I know it! She and the rest of those green mutants were here! Wait Daddy, stop, I mean it!" She cried as Daddy Morbucks grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the shack. "DADDY!" Princess screamed.

Somewhere else far out in the desert, the gang began to fall asleep in the convertible one by one as Grubber continued to drive on well into the night until a new day dawned in the western desert.

As the warm sun shone down on him, Ace opened his eyes beneath his shades. He yawned and stretched out his arms when he suddenly remembered where he was. He looked over in surprise at the hunchbacked driver.

"Grubber! Man, did you drive _all_ night?" Ace asked in amazement. Grubber blew a cheerful raspberry in response. His eyes were wide-open; he didn't look tired at all. "You sure you ain't tired?" Grubber blew another raspberry as he shook his head, his tongue flapping in the wind. "Damn, Grubber, thanks to you, we're making real good time!"

"Would you _kindly_ keep it down?" Angela asked from the back seat. She was clutching a sleeping Lil Arturo like a teddy bear. "We're _trying _to sleep!"

"This is payback for the morning you started singin' into Lil Arturo's comb and woke everyone up," Ace retorted.

"Whatever," Angela said coyly. With one arm around Arturo, and the other with her thumb to her mouth, Angela closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. She didn't realize that others were already awake, because the next thing she heard was Big Billy's voice.

"Big Billy sucks his thumb, too," Big Billy said excitedly. Angela's wide, brown eyes fluttered open as she quickly pulled her hand awake from her mouth.

"Wait, Angie, you sssssuck your thumb?" Snake asked.

"I do _not_ suck my thumb!" Angela protested. She didn't realize that Lil Arturo jolted awake in the crook of her arm.

"Let go of me!" Arturo insisted. "I'm not a teddy bear!"

"You chose to sit on my lap during this trip, so you get to make your bed and lie in it," Angela told him. "Besides, you kick in your sleep," she added, revealing the small bruises on her arm from where Arturo had hit her in his sleep.

"Will you guys _shut up_?" Ace asked in irritation. "Besides, any chance we can grab a bite to eat soon? I'm starvin'." His stomach growled audibly.

"Big Billy hungry too!" Billy agreed.

"Yeah, let's go get something to eat. I'm buyin'," Arturo chimed in.

Grubber blew a raspberry as he stepped on the gas, his tongue flopping in the wind.

Twenty minutes later, the gang stopped in a truck-stop diner in the middle of the desert to enjoy their breakfast. Of course, the other restaurant patrons stared in complete astonishment and bewilderment at the six green teenagers all behaving badly at a nearby booth. Of course, Grubber had already gotten up and was annoying everyone in the diner by playing the same song on the jukebox over and over again.

"Big Billy like chili!" Big Billy announced as loudly as he could as he devoured bowl after bowl of chunky bean chili.

"That'sssss supposed to be for your huevos rancherosssss!" Snake pointed out as he speared a sausage with his fork.

Angela was already on her fourth cup of coffee and was talking very rapidly. She fidgeted constantly at her spot in the booth.

"Supposedly we're not very far from the ATM, can we go there next? Can we, can we, can we?!" Angela begged as she bounced up and down.

"Whaddya talkin' about?" Ace asked. "The ATM is right outside the restaurant."

"I'm talking about the American Toilet Museum!" Angela cried.

"There'sssss no such thing," Snake dismissed. "No more coffee for you!" He added as he pulled away Angela's cup of coffee which was met with a loud "WAH!" from Angela.

"Speaking of toilets, Billy, you better use the bathroom before we leave. It's gonna be a long way before we get to another rest stop and we are _not_ gonna have last night happen again," Lil Arturo impatiently reminded their giant green companion.

Big Billy bounded up from the booth and towards the bathroom where the impact of his footsteps rattled the ground. Angela looked up from her waffle alamode and grinned.

"Don't fall!" Angela cried sarcastically as Big Billy flounced past a waiter carrying a huge stack of dishes. Sure enough, the waiter was knocked flat on his butt by the impact of Big Billy's heavy step as the dishes crashed to the floor.

"It'ssss almost like you predicted he _would_ fall," Snake snickered as Angela clocked him in the nose. Ace smiled approvingly as she was learning from him very quickly.

"You hit like a girl," Snake taunted. Ace punched him in the jaw this time. "I meansss good shot, Angie."

The waitress came by with the check and a few mints. They each took a mint, but Snake took two before Ace could grab his.

"Do _not_ eat my mint," Ace warned as Snake unwrapped both of them. Snake merely snickered at Ace's irritation. "Do _not_ eat my mint!" He repeated. But it was too late. Snake popped them both into his mouth.

"You _ate_ my mint," Ace said in annoyance.

"I feelsss kinda bad that I ate your mint," Snake said ruefully.

"Oh yeah? Well I feel kinda _mad_ that you ate my mint!" Ace snapped as he sent a shocking blow to Snake's chin.

"Go ahead and eat my mint. I'm not gonna eat it," Angela offered as she tossed Ace her mint. Ace caught it with one hand. "And now gentlemen, it's time to teach you the fine art of dine n dash."

Angela led the others stealthily out of the diner as they hopped back into the convertible.

"Floor it!" Angela screamed as Grubber pushed his foot on the gas as they sped off into the morning. They drove for nearly an hour or so when Grubber blew a raspberry like sounding an alarm.

"Guys!" Angela cried. "We forgot Big Billy!"

"That explains why there's all this extra room all the sudden," Arturo realized, as he was no longer sitting on Angela's lap and had plenty of room to spare.

"He'll find us," Ace assured her. "He's not very smart, but he could find us anywhere."

"If you say so," Angela said reluctantly. "Let's put on some music!"

Ace fiddled with the dials on the radio. The only thing that could be heard was a lot of static.

"Dammit," he muttered. "Nothin'."

Ace stopped on a station that played Spanish rap.

"This stuff's awesome!" Arturo said as he sang along rapidly in a manner which none of the others could comprehend.

"Yeah right," Ace said. "I'm not listenin' to this crap."

"I was listening to that!" Arturo protested.

"And now you're not!" Angela pointed out with a smile on her face.

Ace stopped on a station that played soft rock and pop from the 80's and 90's. It was the only other station with clear reception.

"No way in hell am I listenin' to this," Ace shuddered. Of course, Angela had another idea.

"Pretty please?" Angela pleaded. Ace turned around and stared at Angela sitting in the back seat with big, pleading eyes. There was no point in him trying to resist them anymore. Once Angela got started, he couldn't say no.

"Fine!" Ace groaned. "We'll listen to this station until we can get some good ones."

"Yay!" Angela cried as she sang along to Savage Garden's "I Want You".

"Geez," Arturo commented over Angela's singing. "We might as well have listened to Spanish rap!"

Not everyone was annoyed: Snake, a closet Savage Garden fan, actually ended up singing along with Angela, adding in his snakelike vocals.

Of course, that station didn't last very long either.

"Great! Now we don't got any music!" Ace complained as he fiddled impatiently with the dial in a desperate attempt to get some descent music.

Grubber blew a raspberry.

"You mean you got the car horn fixed?" Angela asked excitedly. Understanding Grubber was second-nature to her now. She had cracked the code of Grubber.

"Awesome!" Arturo cried. "Play it for us, Grubber!"

Grubber honked the horn as Lil Arturo and Angela continued to sing "La Cucaracha", thus driving everyone in the car absolutely bonkers. It didn't help that despite the fact that it was November the desert heat scorched the gang as they pressed onward. Of course, they weren't really sure where they were.

"Grubber, where the hell are we?" Ace asked irately. His greasy black hair was drenched with sweat. Grubber blew a raspberry. "Whaddya mean we don't know?" Ace asked exasperatedly. He would've smacked Grubber, but the heat had sapped a lot of his energy.

"I know where we are!" Angela cried. "We're _lost_!"

Two seconds later, the car came to a sputtering stop on the highway. Grubber tried to slam his foot on the pedal, but Ace smacked him upside the head.

"You IDIOT!" Ace fumed. "You're the driver! You was SUPPOSED to be making sure we don't run outta gas! And now look what you done!"

Looking around, there was no gas station for miles and miles. They were surrounded by huge clay-colored rock formations and giant, menacing looking cactus plants.

"We're gonna die out here in the middle of thissss desssssert!" Snake panicked.

"Okay, everyone remain calm," Angela said, trying to play the peacemaker. "Maybe there's someone we can call for help!"

"Angie, we don't need to be callin' 9-1-1 for help," Ace assured her. "The cops ain't gonna do anything."

"Not that! I mean like AAA or something. Maybe they can help us! Does anyone have a cell phone?" Angela asked.

No one said anything. They all looked at Angela as though she would have one. Of course, her cell phone was back at her uncle's house, collecting worried and furious voicemail messages from her parents.

"Okay. _Now_ we're doomed!" Angela cried. "You can all panic now!"

Everyone started to panic like chickens with their heads cut off. They shouted things like, "Help! Save us! We're all gonna die!" They didn't notice Big Billy show up out of nowhere and begin panicking alongside his friends in the middle of the desert.

Ace realized that the giant of the group had joined them. Ace stopped and looked over as Big Billy began to scream really loud for no apparent reason.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ace interrupted as the others stopped freaking out. "Billy, where'd you come from?"

"My mommy said I came from her and a Cyclops on Monster Island," Big Billy responded in his happy stupor.

"That's not what I meant!" Ace said exasperatedly.

"I was at the diner," Big Billy said. "I had to go to the bathroom after eating all that chili."

Big Billy's stomach began to rumble and gurgle.

"Well, whatever you do, don't fart," Angela urged.

"Oooh! We could tell Billy to fart in the gassss tank!" Snake suggested. Of course, Ace smacked him upside the head for suggesting something so stupid.

"Yeah, nice try, but I don't think Big Billy farting into the gas tank is going to help us," Arturo agreed. "Let's think of something else."

Suddenly, a horrible cracking sound followed, which meant only one thing: Grubber was trying to stand up straight.

Grubber's curved spine contoured awfully as the others watched him stand tall. The strange young man began to say with perfect diction:

"Flatulence contains the same chemical elements that can be found in gasoline meaning if William were to pass wind into the tank, it may actually help continue us on our way."

Grubber then snapped like a rubber band back into his normal state as the others stared at him.

"Wow, Grubber! You're a genius!" Ace said approvingly. "You should win a Nobel peace prize or somethin' like that."

"Or one of those wrestling belts," Angela suggested. "That'd be awesome!"

"Hey! Having Big Billy fart into the tank wassss my ideasss!" Snake protested. But everyone ignored him.

Ace walked around to the side of the convertible and lifted the lid off the gas tank.

"Well, come on Billy, do your thing," Ace said.

Big Billy walked over to the gas tank as the others backed as far away as they could. With a laugh, Big Billy pulled his pants down and stuck his butt up to the gas tank. He unleashed a fart so powerful that it caused the engine to rev up.

"Awesomeness! It worked!" Angela cried. "Nice one, Billy!"

"Now let's get outta here!" Ace shouted as he jumped into his place in the passenger's seat.

"Don't thank Big Billy! Thank chili!" Big Billy said happily, pleased at himself for helping his friends out of this jam.

The gang jumped into the car. Grubber slammed his foot on the pedal. However, Big Billy's tremendous fart powered the car enough to send it whizzing at breakneck speed down the highway. Even if Grubber took his foot off the pedal, there was no way to stop the convertible. It was worse than the time that the breaks were shot. The six of them began to scream at the top of their lungs as they zipped as fast as they could down the highway with no end in sight.

**Author's Note: Cliffhanger! Woo hoo! Anywho, random trivia, since Arturo was always my second favorite member of the Gangrene Gang, I decided it was fitting to give him and Angela a brother/sister type relationship. How they interact with each other will play an important role in the sequel to this story. **


	13. Adventures in Wal-Mart Part Deux

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own The Powerpuff Girls, Wal-Mart, or "Joyride" by Roxette. The only thing I do own is Angela. So sit back and enjoy the continuing misadventures of the Gangrene Gang!**

The Powerpuff Girls sat in their cozy living room that afternoon watching the news so they could bask in their most recent accomplishment of foiling Mojo Jojo's most recent plot to hypnotize the citizens of Townsville via telephone messages. Of course, once the news anchor finished that story, the girls were in for the surprise of their lives.

"And in national news," the news anchor continued, "Arizona residents spotted a convertible out of control on the highway heading for the Arizona-New Mexico border. However, the speed of the convertible, traveling at approximately one hundred and ten miles per hour, is not what has captured the attention of authorities and bystanders."

"Holy cow!" Bubbles cried. "Look how fast that car is going!"

"That car looks awfully familiar," Blossom said suspiciously as she watched the footage of a red blur zipping down the desert highway.

"Witnesses have described the convertible as being occupied by six adolescents," the announcer continued. "Arizona Highway Patrol officers are currently pursuing the convertible, but no other information about the convertible or the occupants is available at this time."

"Weird," Blossom observed. "I wonder who those teenagers were."

"You're right, Blossom," Bubbles said. "That car _did_ look familiar. Where have we seen it before?"

"I say they stole it and they're on the run from the law," Buttercup suggested. Any excuse to kick some ass was all she needed.

"Wait a second, Buttercup, you have the remote. Hit rewind," Blossom directed.

Buttercup hit the "rewind" button on the DVR as the news footage of the runaway convertible reversed.

"Hit the pause button!" Blossom cried. Buttercup did just that as three mouths dropped simultaneously upon getting a better look at the blurry occupants of the convertible. It was impossible to tell just who was in the car, but the only clue the girls needed was that all of them had green skin.

"_The Gangrene Gang_?!" Blossom asked incredulously.

"But wait a moment," Bubbles chimed in. "There's six of them! Aren't there only _five_ members of the Gangrene Gang?"

"That's because my embarrassment of a cousin joined them!" Screeched a sickeningly familiar voice. The girls turned around and saw Princess Morbucks standing in their living room. What she was doing here was beyond them.

"Princess!" Blossom gasped. "What're you talking about?"

"I'm _saying_ my cousin Angela has been hiding with them the entire time!" Princess explained furiously. She continued in a slightly calmer manner, "She _stole_ from my daddy and since _I _know how to deal with my own cousin better than _you_ ever could, _maybe_ you'll let me be a Powerpuff Girl!"

"Princess, we already _tried_ letting you be a Powerpuff Girl when we tried to defeat the Rowdy Ruff Boys!" Buttercup told her impatiently. "But _you_ had to get all crazy with your super-expensive weapons so we'll _never_ let you be a Powerpuff Girl again!"

"Wait a second Buttercup, even though she really didn't help us last time, Princess might be on to something," Blossom said. "Princess, you said your cousin Angela was living with the Gangrene Gang?" She asked.

"That's what I just said!" Princess shouted. "My cousin changed her hair and ran away from home and went around telling people her name was Angie. She started stealing from people and then she stole from my daddy so she and her friends all decided that they were going to run away from home!"

The Powerpuff Girls all gasped in unison, thinking back to that fall night they rescued a young teenage girl named Angie.

"Psh, why would _anyone_ wanna waste their time hanging out with the Gangrene Gang?" Buttercup asked bitterly.

"You did!" Bubbles reminded her with a giggle.

"No time for that," Blossom said, playing the mediator. "Princess, you're coming with us and we're on our way to New Mexico."

"Wait a second!" Princess said. "We're going back to my place first! I need to get my weapons!"

"Not this again!" Buttercup groaned.

"Princess, sweetie," Blossom said trying to soften her words, "We don't _need_ weapons to defeat the Gangrene Gang. They're easy to handle by themselves. Even with your cousin on their team, we should have no problem with them!"

"But! But! But!" Princess stammered in protest.

"You don't need weapons," Bubbles said sweetly. "You can help us out by telling us more about your cousin!"

"Psh, why would I care about that stupid, immature…?" Princess scoffed before Blossom interrupted her.

"You can just tell us what you know," Blossom assured her as she laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. She hated being nice to Princess, but if they were going to get anywhere at all, she didn't have a choice. "Where would they possibly go?"

"How would _I_ know?" Princess asked impatiently. "All my cousin does is talk and talk and talk and she _never_ shuts up and most of the time, what she's saying makes absolutely no sense!"

"Like someone _else_ we know," Buttercup said snidely to Bubbles who giggled.

"It must run in the family!" Bubbles agreed.

"Girls!" Blossom scolded. She then turned back to Princess and said maturely, "Now, Princess you just told us that you'd know your cousin better than we ever could, so we need your co-operation. Has Angela ever told you where she would want to go? Does she ever talk about taking a fun trip some place? Has she ever wanted to go somewhere but for some reason, couldn't?"

"Well, she _does_ talk about how fun it would be to go to New York," Princess remembered. "But I don't get it. My daddy takes me all the time. The only reason Angela doesn't get to go is because her parents won't take her because she's rotten and evil and she _never_ does what she's told. Besides, my aunt and uncle aren't _nearly_ as good as my daddy and…" by now, Princess was rambling on and on and on.

"All right, we're heading east!" Blossom announced. "Come on Princess. You're coming with us!"

Buttercup and Bubbles each took Princess by the arm. She protested as loudly as she could, but her protests were ignored. Blossom led the way with her sisters and their temporary partner in crime-fighting following behind her.

Out in the desert, the Gangrene Gang continued to zip down the highway at breakneck speed. The police had long given up following them; they were just too damn fast and they had already crossed the state lines into Texas. Finally, the car came to a slow, sputtering stop as it ran out of gas once again.

"Thanks Billy! We made good timing!" Angela said approvingly. "We should be in New York in no time!"

"Don't thank Big Billy! Thank chili!" Big Billy repeated joyfully.

"Yeah, but now we gotta figure out how to get the car going again," Ace said. "Billy, you got any more of that in you?"

"Nope," Big Billy said in disappointment. "It's all gone."

"Damn," Ace swore softly.

The sun slowly began to sink behind the western hills.

"We gotta find ssssssome gas ssssssoon," Snake pointed out.

"We only have one other choice other than panicking like chickens with their heads cut off," Angela said. "I mean, we tried that already and look how well it worked. We gotta push the car."

"Big Billy can push!" Big Billy offered.

"Billy, if we ever needed your strength right now, this would be a damn good time," Angela said.

Ace watched Angela direct Big Billy. Being the leader of the gang, he couldn't help but feel a little threatened. But being head over heels for Angie, he couldn't help but watch her approvingly. If they were in this situation without her, Ace totally would've gone crazy and an all-out bloodbath would've broken out. But Angela handled herself, and the others, with such finesse.

_Yeah, if we ever wanted a queen, Angie would be perfect, _Ace thought to himself with a smile.

Big Billy hopped out of the car and raced around to the back where he began to shove the car down the highway, making gaping holes in the pavement as he ran. He gleefully laughed as the others hollered and shouted with the excitement that they were continuing on their way.

However, Big Billy, being very fat, could only run for so long before he ran out of breath.

"Big Billy tired," Billy moaned. "Big Billy wanna go to sleep."

"Come on Billy!" Arturo coaxed. "Can't you go for just a little bit longer?"

Big Billy collapsed onto the road.

"Oh man, that's not good," Ace said, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

"Guysss, we're running out of food," Snake pointed out.

"What?! We've only been on the road for two days! How can we be outta food already?!" Ace asked in exasperation. He got his answer when Big Billy belched as loud as he could. Ace smacked his forehead in disgust. "Ah that's just great. We're gonna starve out here in the middle of the desert and it's all your fault!"

Grubber began to wail out of sheer panic, blowing raspberries as tears shot out of his eyes like a sprinkler system until Ace smacked him.

"Get a hold of yourself, man!" Ace snapped.

"Both of you get a hold of yourself!" Angela cried. "Let's just keep pushing the car until we find something!"

They got behind the car and continued to push.

"Oh man, I'm so hungry right now," Arturo groaned.

"I hopesssss we find ssssssomething soon," Snake agreed. "Or we'll have to eatssss each othersssss."

"We are _not_ gonna eat each other," Ace assured them, growing impatient as they continued to push the car through the desert.

"If we do, I say we eat Big Billy first," Arturo suggested. "I mean, he did get us into this mess by eating all our food."

Luckily, Big Billy was passed out in the back seat and didn't hear Arturo.

"What's that over there?" Angela pointed out.

"There's nothing out here except desert!" Arturo cried. "How can you see anything?"

"No! I'm dead serious!" Angela argued. "I see something way out there that looks kinda like a building. I can see a flat roof."

Grubber blew a raspberry.

"See?!" Angela shouted. "Grubber sees it too!"

"You see the building too, Grubber?" Ace asked. "How do you know you aren't seeing one of those garage thingies?"

"It's called a _mirage_," Angela corrected. "And besides, you don't see mirages in the desert _at night_ let alone this time of year. Let's follow it."

Angela and the others hopped out of the car. They helped Big Billy to his feet and somehow got him in the convertible where he rested. That in and of itself was no easy task and they still had to push the car towards the mysterious building. As the author of this story, even _I _don't know how they did it. But as the building came closer and closer into view, the giant neon blue and white lettering on the building was their saving grace.

"Look! We found Wal-Mart!" Arturo cried joyfully.

"That's the best one of those garage thingies I've ever seen," Ace pointed out. "Too bad it's probably not real."

"Ace! It's called a _mirage!_" Angela repeated. "And I know that _this_ is _not_ a mirage and I swear to God it's real!"

The gang moved faster as they continued to push the car towards the giant superstore oasis in the middle of the desert.

"It _is_ real!" Arturo cried. "And there's a gas station across the road so we can fill the tank up!"

So the gang fueled up the car with some of the money that Arturo owed Angela. Big Billy regained his strength as he joined the others who stood outside of the Wal-Mart.

"We can just get some food here," Arturo suggested.

"Yeah, but how we gonna do that if the store is closed?" Ace asked. "There must be _some_ way we can get in."

"Watch and learn," Angela said as she took out a hair pin and picked the lock used to hold the automatic doors together. Slowly, the automatic doors creaked open.

"That'sssss pretty awesome," Snake complimented. "But ain't wessss gonna get caughtsssss?"

"Snake, if there's _anything_ I've learned from spending time with you guys, it's that life's way too short to worry about getting caught," Angela said confidently. "Now let's go!"

The gang ran inside the dark store like a pack of wild animals that had been released from the zoo. Chaos ensued all through the hours of the night as the gang looted as much prepackaged, process food as they could for the next leg of their trip. But the madness didn't end either. As Ace walked down one aisle with boxes of donuts and KY jelly (don't ask me what he was doing with the latter…I don't wanna know), he was nearly knocked off his feet as Snake and Grubber raced each other down the aisles on shopping carts. He merely shook his head in disgust at his weird friends and kept walking when he passed by Arturo and Big Billy having duels with giant rolls of wrapping paper. He ignored them as he saw Angela dressing up the mannequins in the clothing section in outlandish outfits.

"Hey Angie, did ya get any good stuff?" Ace asked her. He didn't need to. He always knew she was good at looting the best stuff.

"You know it," Angela said devilishly as she pulled several pocket-sized electronics out of her bra. That's when Ace's teenage guy brain went straight for the gutter as he asked himself what other awesome stuff could be hiding in there.

"Oh, and by the way," Angela said, her voice hushed. She leaned in closer to Ace as he began to feel very warm, "Tell your pants it's rude to point."

Ace's green complexion turned so red you could land a plane on it as Angela burst out laughing. For having spent most of her life around other girls, it sure didn't take her very long to figure out the one-track mind of a teenage boy.

"Mmm, I could let you have your way with me, but we're in the middle of a Wal-Mart and according to this awesome watch I took out of the jewelry department, there's only two hours until the store opens. And do you _really_ wanna run the risk of getting caught? I didn't think so," Angela said demurely as she planted a soft kiss on Ace's cheek, which was still bright red.

"Yeah," he stammered. "Let's go find the others and get outta here."

Ace and Angela searched the Wal-Mart until they found the others in the toy aisle playing soccer. Snake and Arturo were beating Big Billy and Grubber. Arturo was glad that he and Snake were winning and even happier that he wasn't the ball.

"Come on! Let's go!" Ace urged.

"But Ace! We're winning!" Arturo protested.

"The store opens in two hours and I'd really rather we didn't get caught," Angela told them. She and Ace walked away together, their hands in each other's back pockets. The others followed behind them pouting.

They walked back across the street to the gas station and hoped in the convertible as they prepared for the next leg of their epic adventure.

**Author's Note: Since the Gangrene Gang only had roughly seven episodes about them (and brief cameos in several more episodes) I've had to be pretty creative as to what they'd do in various situations. Most of my antics for the Gangrene Gang and Angela are loosely inspired by the antics of me and my friends. A week ago, myself and two other guys in our group went skipping through the hallways of the college singing the theme from **_**The Wizard of Oz**_**. We tried to get my boyfriend to join us, but he merely rolled his eyes at us and quite possibly thought we were a bunch of idiots. **


	14. She's Always a Woman

**SuperSailorCharon: don't own anyone except for Angela. I do not own "Tonite" by The Go-Gos or "She's Always a Woman" by Billy Joel. "Desert Rose" is property of Sting. I don't own that either, and I'm kinda glad I don't since I'm tired of that song but I thought it would work for this chapter. Consider yourself warned as the end of this chapter is mildly sexual (don't worry, nothing gross). And now for the continuation of the Gangrene Gang's antics across America! **

As the gang continued on their journey, Ace sat in the passenger's seat glancing over a map.

"Hey, there's a place called Dumbass, Texas," Ace pointed out as the others laughed.

"That'sssss a perfect name for a place in thissss state," Snake agreed as he snickered.

"Uh, guys, it's pronounced _Dumas_," Angela corrected. "And does _anyone_ have any idea how long until we're in New York? This is taking forever!"

"Are we there yet?" Arturo asked. Soon he and Angela began asking together in unison, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Eventually, Snake joined in. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Finally, Big Billy began asking with a big grin on his face, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

"Shut up! We're not even close!" Ace snapped. Grubber blew a raspberry of exasperation.

The rest of the day remained quite boring. As Grubber drove onward through long stretched of nothing, the rest of the gang either napped or sang along to whatever radio stations they could get. Unfortunately, since they were rapidly approaching the Midwest, there were times where all they could get were country stations. Every hour, they stopped to let Big Billy take a bathroom break. Once they got back on the road, Angela kept herself entertained with a round of punch-buggy. Of course, she seemed to be the only one playing.

"Punch buggy red!" She cried as they passed a red Volkswagen. She slugged Arturo in the arm.

"Geez, Angie!" Arturo complained as he rubbed his aching arm. "You definitely don't hit like a girl!"

"Punch buggy blue!" Angela called out five minutes later as a blue Volkswagen drove by. Angela jabbed Snake in the shoulder.

"That'sssss not cool," Snake pouted. "That hurtsssss."

"Don't be a bad sport!" Angela cajoled. "Punch buggy's fun!"

"Punch buggy!" Big Billy cried as he punched Angela in the shoulder. The shock sent her careening into Snake on the other side of the back seat.

"Dude!" Angela cried in pain. A purple ring formed on her skin. "That wasn't even a Volkswagen!"

"Billy, you touch her again and I'll kick your ass," Ace threatened.

"But I wanted to play punch buggy too!" Big Billy whined as tears dribbled down his face. He began to wail loudly.

"Fine!" Ace snapped impatiently. "I got a new idea for a game! How's about we play the quiet game? The first person to talk is the loser!"

"Ooh! What does the winner getsss?" Snake wanted to know. But of course, he went ignored. Everyone went dead silent.

Of course, there was only ten minutes of peace and quiet. Grubber began fiddling with the radio stations with the hope of something other than static and country music when he stumbled upon a station playing a fast new wave tune with a catchy bass backed up by female vocals.

"Oooh! I love this song!" Angela cried. "It's "Tonite" by The Go-Gos!"

"I guessss Angie loses the quiet game," Snake pointed out.

"So do you!" Arturo laughed. Realizing he just spoke up, he said, "Oh wait, so do I."

"Pull over and crank up the radio!" Angela demanded. "I got an idea!"

Grubber slammed on the breaks as the car sat parked in the middle of the highway. Angela hopped out of the convertible into the barren field as Ace began to wonder if Angela had finally lost her mind. He then remember that this was one of Angela's moments of complete unpredictability. Those moments had already grown on him.

Angela began to perform a very elaborate ballet routine, the beat of the bass seeming to pulse through her veins. The rest of the gang cheered her on as Ace stared through his shades longingly and lustfully. Angela did turns, swift jumps, kicks, and deep, quick plies, almost as though she were floating gracefully along the ground.

A semi drove by and honked the horn at the dancing girl in the middle of the field. A pick-up truck passed by and the occupants stopped to take Angela's photo. And plenty of other passers-by threw money at her.

Three minutes later, Angela hopped back into the convertible as Arturo sat on her lap. Angela began counting up the money that random people driving along the highway had thrown at her.

"Angie, that was a _great_ idea!" Ace said approvingly. "How'd you know people would stop and throw money at ya?"

"I guess people will pay to see _anything _out here since there's nothing but corn and lots of it," Angela laughed as her face flushed. Any word of praise from Ace still made her turn bright red. "One thing's for sure, we're actually gonna stop somewhere tonight, even if it's just a cheap motel. I honestly have no idea how Grubber's been able to drive when he hasn't slept for about three days."

The rest of the day remained, surprisingly, very quiet. The gang drove through McDonald's and scared the hell out of the person at the drive-thru window just for being, well, green. The sun began to slowly sink in the opposite direction that the gang was headed, turning the vast Midwestern sky in shades of red and orange. As night fell, the gang found themselves entering Oklahoma. A heavy layer of frost blanketed the prairie.

"What'd I say?" Angela pointed out. "Nothing but corn. And it's ice cold."

"Yeah, I'm freezing," Snake complained as his lips turned blue. Every time he breathed out, his breath became invisible in a puff of foggy steam. "We better find a place to stay soon, because it is fucking cold."

Grubber blew a raspberry as he cranked up the heater and hit the button to raise up the roof on the convertible.

Ace said nothing. Instead, he could feel warmth engulf him. It was almost overwhelming. Before he could take off his vest, everything around him melted away. He wasn't sure where he was anymore, but it was still night. The moon was full and the air around him was very, very warm. He looked around him. Nothing but sand and cacti for miles.

"Damn, how'd I end up back in the desert?" He asked himself. Ace's eyes fell on Angela. Her dark hair spilled out across her chest and her wide, brown eyes followed him seductively. She wore a red belly dance costume with gold coins that jangled whenever she walked.

"I'm pretty sure this is one of those garage thingies now," Ace said as he grinned from ear to ear.

Angela began to dance seductively as "Desert Rose" by Sting played in the background.

"If this is a dream," Ace said out loud to himself, "I don't think I ever wanna wake up."

"Please wake up," Angela told him gently. "Pretty please, please wake up."

Meanwhile, the convertible had stopped outside of a Motel 6. Grubber had already gone inside to reserve rooms for everyone (or to possibly scare the living shit out of the person working at the front desk) and Angela had hopped out of the convertible and walked up to the passenger's seat to try and wake up Ace. His breath was shallow and quiet.

"Pretty please! Please wake up," Angela begged gently. But no answer. "He's out like a light," Angela said, trying to mask the concern in her voice. "That's a first. He's _never_ the first one to fall asleep." She took his limp, slender hands into hers. "He's ice cold."

"That's why I'm ditching you losers and I'm going to get a bed!" Snake announced as he darted away.

"Come on Angie, I'm sure he'll be fine," Arturo said impatiently. "We had the heater cranked up on full-blast!"

Angela unbuckled Ace and lifted him out of the passenger's seat.

"Damn! You're strong!" Arturo said in awe.

Angela wasn't sure how she did it, but she carried Ace as Arturo walked alongside her and Big Billy happily followed.

When Ace woke up, he panicked for a moment; he didn't know where he was. He took off his shades and his eyes adjusted to the darkness around him. The new setting, a dirty motel room that reeked of cigarette smoke and vomit. Ace looked over to find Angela underneath the thin comforter, sleeping peacefully. Her brown eyes opened slowly as she gazed up at him with a smile.

"Did I wake you?" He whispered.

"Maybe," she admitted sleepily. "I'm just glad you're all right."

"Did _you_ carry me in here?" Ace asked in disbelief.

"Who else could've done it?" Angela replied with a yawn. She sat up slowly and looked him in the eyes.

"Damn," Ace said quietly. "I guess we're even after the time I carried you to bed when you had too much to drink." He paused before adding, "Thanks."

"I did what I had to do," Angela said modestly.

He couldn't believe that he'd been sleeping next to her, and he wasn't really even sure for how long. Then again, that didn't matter. He stared at her longingly, his dark eyes locked on hers. They leaned into each other and kissed each other just as passionately as they had the first time. His hands ran down her back and unhooked her bra as he reached toward her chest.

Angela couldn't believe what was happening. Fireworks exploded in her head and her heart thudded audibly against her ribcage. This was the first time a non-medical person was touching her chest.

And she liked it. She didn't want him to ever, ever stop.

But he did. He pulled away. And she could tell he was about to unzip his pants. Angela grabbed him by the wrist.

The next thing Ace knew, he was sitting on the cold, concrete balcony outside the room. Before slamming the door to their room, Angela tossed a pillow at him.

"Come on Angie!" Ace begged. "I thought you wanted to go all the way!"

"We can always do that in the sequel!" Angela said firmly as the fourth wall came crumbling down. "I'll let you back in when you behave yourself!"

As Ace sat there on the frigid, stony balcony overlooking a whole lot of nothing over the plains, a million questions popped up in his brain. How was a seemingly meek little girl so strong? How was she using her strength to be loving one minute and cold the next? And most importantly:

How was he going to rid himself of this sexual hunger on this balcony and do it discreetly?

Of course, he didn't have time to answer any of those questions because the rest of the gang found him as they walked down the balcony. Ace stood up.

"What're yous guys doing here?" Ace asked.

"We wanted to knowssss if youssss wanted to make crank callsssss with usssss," Snake offered.

"It's hilarious! We've already sent three dozen pillows to the room on the end and we've arranged a three AM wakeup call for everybody!" Arturo told him excitedly.

For now, Ace would be perfectly content making crank calls with his friends just like old times. For now, he'd have to remember one little thing: Angela was a woman. Women just don't make sense.


	15. Who Ordered This Cappuccino?

The next day at a high-class spa somewhere in Texas, the Powerpuff Girls and Princess were all enjoying mudbaths courtesy of Princess and her platinum card.

"Ugh!" Buttercup groaned impatiently. "This is a waste of time! The Gangrene Gang are probably long gone by now! What are we doing here?!"

"Is _that_ the thanks I get for paying for a nice day of recuperation for all four of us?" Princess asked smugly. "Why are you complaining?"

"This is actually kinda fun!" Bubbles giggled. "I feel so relaxed! Flying around for hours and hours can make you tired."

"Bubbles is right," Blossom agreed. "We can't expect to fight the Gangrene Gang if we're exhausted. We can spare a day to recover."

Buttercup was shocked that Blossom would condone this nonsense, but then again, Blossom always disagreed with whatever she had to say, anyway. Buttercup groaned as Princess, Blossom, and Bubbles all giggled like schoolgirls.

Meanwhile, the Gangrene Gang had continued on their journey eastward and found a truck stop to grab something for lunch.

As the six green teenagers walked in, the smarmy blonde waitress took one look at them and tried her hardest not to allow her face to scrunch up in disgust.

"Didn't your mother tell ya it's rude to stare?" Ace asked irately.

"Table for six?" She asked, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. She smiled uncertainly. No one said anything. "Right this way," she said awkwardly as she led the gang to a booth.

The green teenagers squished into the booth in the corner of the restaurant as the waitress plopped a plastic menu in front of each of them and disappeared. The restaurant was dimly lit and filled with cigarette smoke. Nearby, the other side of the dining room was filled with truckers sitting at booths, laughing and hollering, comparing stories of life out on the road. One of them, a burly and pale man, looked over at the Gangrene Gang as they all debated over what they were going to order.

"Hey look!" The trucker called out over to the booth where the Gangrene Gang sat. The six of them looked up uncertainly from their menus. Angela's eyes darted nervously over to the trucker. He had unruly auburn hair and a bushy beard to match. The man vaguely resembled Sasquatch. "Those kids are _green_!"

"What happened to you kids?" Asked a trucker who was sitting at a booth across from Sasquatch. This guy was older and looked like he could pass as Santa Claus. "You kids looked like you're seasick. The coast is two thousand miles away!" He laughed and so did the other truckers.

Angela's face turned bright red. Big Billy just sat there grinning in oblivion. Grubber and Snake had looks of confusion and mortification on their faces. Arturo looked more than irritated. Of course, Ace used this moment as an opportunity to work his charm.

"Oh, we're not seasick," Ace said, his voice edged with sadness. "My friends and I all have a rare blood disease that turns our skin this undesirable shade."

"That's terrible, son," said the Santa Claus trucker. "What's it called?"

"Erm, it's called, erm, greenskinneosis," Ace stammered, trying to concoct a fictitious ailment. He regained his charm over the ornery-looking truckers when he added, "We're terminal. Every last one of us!" Sadness oozed from his eyes as the truckers looked at the Gangrene Gang with expressions of pity and rage at the fact that such young lives could be horribly cut short.

"The doctors told us we're not gonna live very long," Ace continued. "Why, we could all be dead tomorra, for all we know!"

Big Billy began to wail loudly, not realizing that Ace was lying through his teeth. Of course, Big Billy's tears made Ace's story all the more convincing. "Big Billy no wanna die!" He sobbed as Ace placed a sympathetic hand on the shoulder of his giant friend.

"All we wanted to do before we bit the dust was go to New York City," Ace said as though he too would begin to tear up. "My friends and I decided we would all go on a road trip to celebrate the last days of our lives."

There was an awkward silence.

"Is that red convertible up front yours?" Sasquatch asked.

"Yeah, that's ours," Ace replied sadly. "That thing got us all the way here from California."

"Wow," Sasquatch said in awe. "Well you're not gonna get much further in that thing if the snows hit. It _is_ November, after all. I'm on my way up to Maine and I have a stop I need to make in New York. How would you guys like to ride in my rig?"

"Bud, what're you doing?" Santa Claus asked. "You know that's not allowed."

"I know, but those kids are terminal. The least I can do is make sure they get up to New York and have the time of their lives."

The waitress came by to take the orders of the Gangrene Gang. Santa Claus called out, "Ma'am! Their meal's on me! Those kids need it."

The waitress looked perplexed. She smiled and then said, "What can I get you kids today?"

"I want five hamburgers!" Big Billy requested joyfully as he patted his gelatinous belly.

"I'll have what he's havin'," Ace said. "I'm starvin'."

"That sounds good," the waitress said. She looked at Snake and asked, "What can I get for you?"

"Grubber and I wanna split the bottomless steak and fries," Snake said as Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement.

"And how 'bout you, hun?" The waitress asked Lil Arturo.

"Do you have any tacos?" Arturo asked.

The waitress looked as though Arturo announced that he wanted to eat a guinea pig.

"Sorry, but we don't have those here," the waitress said. "You're in an _American_ restaurant. And try to speak more clearly. I'll take your order when I can understand your accent."

"That's messed up," Arturo complained.

"You wanna share a stack of pancakes with me, Arturo?" Angela offered.

"I guess so," Arturo said as he shrugged his shoulders, still seething over how unfair this place was.

"All right honey, I'll bring you a stack of pancakes," the waitress said sweetly. "What flavor would you like?"

"I'll have buttermilk," Angela said.

"And what would you like to drink?" The waitress asked as she jotted down Angela's order.

"If you have those, I'll have a cappuccino," Angela requested.

The waitress's expression turned into one of horror. She bent down and whispered to Angela so as not to be heard by anyone else, "Look here, Missy, we don't serve those here. Those aren't _American_, and so the owner doesn't put them on the menu. I can have one made for you if you promise not to tell anyone. M'kay?"

"Yes Ma'am," Angela said sheepishly as her cheeks burned in embarrassment.

Five minutes later, the waitress brought out a steaming hot mug and began walking towards the booth that the Gangrene Gang sat at. She wasn't more than fifteen feet from the table when the owner showed up.

The owner was a hulk of a man with a head full of white hair, a face full of wrinkles, and torn-up overalls.

"Hold on Meredith," he said to the waitress. "What is that?"

"It's just a regular coffee with milk," the waitress replied meekly. Terror colored her face.

"No, that ain't no coffee with milk," the owner barked. "That's a cappuccino. What'd I tell you 'bout serving anything _un-American_?" He walked to the center of the dining room and bellowed, "WHO ORDERED THIS CAPPUCINO?!"

The entire restaurant went dead silent. Truckers and tourists alike stopped in the middle of their meals to turn their attention to the red-faced, furious owner

"I'm a hard-workin' American farmer, and I've worked too hard to have anything _un-American_ in my truck stop. We have a little rule 'round here," the owner announced dangerously. "Anyone _un-American_ has to lick the bottom of my boot. And believe me, these boots are muddy and nasty from this year's harvest. So who ordered this foofy _un-American _drink? Anyone?"

Angela gulped hard. She would've gone back home and faced the punishment of her family for running away and stealing from her uncle before licking the bottom of an old farmer's boot.

No one said a single word. Finally, the waitress pointed over to the table the Gangrene Gang sat at.

"It was them, sir!" The waitress cried. "Please don't fire me! I was only doing my job! The customer is always right!"

"Hehehe, the customer is always right!" Ace repeated nervously. As a sea of angry faces stared at him and his friends, Ace made a break for it as the rest of his gang (and the rest of the restaurant patrons) followed behind him.

"Those kids ain't terminally ill!" Santa Claus accused. "After them!"

The Gangrene Gang hopped into the convertible as Grubber fumbled around with the keys. He stuck the key in the ignition and slammed on the gas as they drove away from the angry mob of truckers and good ol' American tourists.

"Well, we'll never catch them," the owner said somberly. "A semi ain't fast enough and my tractor only gets eight miles to the gallon."

"Yeah, but they're gonna slide out on a patch of ice or somethin' sooner or later," Sasquatch said. "Not to mention there's a blizzard coming in."

Of course, the Gangrene Gang didn't even stop to think about the weather. They couldn't seem to get out of that truck stop fast enough.


	16. Waterloo

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own "Waterloo" by Abba. Enjoy! **

The Gangrene Gang continued to drive on into the icy November fog that covered the Midwestern plains.

"That was a close one!" Arturo said in relief. "That place was so stupid!"

"It wassss a good idea to lie and sssssay we wassss sick," Snake snickered.

"Yeah, I thought it worked pretty well too," Ace agreed. "Until _somebody_ had to go and ruin it!" He said as he turned around and glared at Angela.

"I'm off cappuccinos forever," Angela swore as Grubber continued driving. Her face flushed with shame.

"Keep your eyes on the road, Grubber!" Ace urged.

"Come on, what's out there for him to hit?" Arturo argued. "There's nothing out here to hit! The road's just straight!"

"It'ssss sssssstarting to get really cold heressss," Snake complained as he shivered. He huddled himself onto the back seat keeping warm with whatever body heat he had.

The sky began to grow hauntingly dark and foggy, like something eerie out of a horror film. Grubber had already raised the roof on the convertible, but the chill in the air still threatened to grab them all and take them to a frozen grave. Grubber turned on the heat as snow began to tumble from the sky, hundreds of snowflakes falling at once, blinding their view. He maneuvered the car and began to slide on the ice, threatening to careen into the opposite side of the road.

"I'm scared," Angela admitted. "Grubber, slow down! We're gonna slip off the road!"

Grubber blew a raspberry and pulled over as the snow began to fall at an alarming rate, blankets of white piling up on the fields.

"_Now_ whadda we do?" Ace asked in frustration.

"I don't know," Angela muttered fearfully. "I really don't."

They sat there in silence as the car engine hummed.

"I guess we wait here?" Angela suggested. "We wait here until the snow lifts up and we keep the car on for heat. Maybe we can get more gas somewhere that's close by."

"But what if we run outta gas before the snow stops and we all freeze to death?" Arturo asked in a panic.

"Worst comes to worst, maybe a snowplow will spot us," Angela said hopefully.

"Hopefully ssssomething happenssssss," Snake said. "We're running low on food againssssss."

They waited quietly in what little warmth they had in the car as snow continued to pile up. The snow became so heavy that the flimsy roof of the convertible threatened to cave in and trap the gang in icy piles of snow.

They waited all afternoon and into the night. The snow didn't cease. No snowplows were out on the road. It was a miracle that the roof of the convertible hadn't collapsed. The faint heat from the car heater barely sufficed in keeping the six stranded teens warm.

Angela's eyes were wide open in the middle of the night as she clung to a sleeping Lil Arturo in an attempt to keep both him and herself warm. Tears dripped down her face as the snowflakes continued to sail out of the dark, stormy sky. Fourteen was too young to die. But if it was her time, maybe having someone find the icy corpse of herself alongside the only people she ever considered her friends wasn't such a bad thing.

She thought she was the only one still awake.

"Hey Angie," Ace whispered. "You still awake?"

"Yeah," Angela said softly.

"What're you crying for?" Ace asked. Angela thought he was judging her.

"I'm not crying," Angela lied.

"Don't be shittin' me. I'm serious. You okay?" He asked concerned.

"I'm scared," was all Angela would say.

"Me too," he admitted. There was a silence between them counted in heartbeats. "You wanna come up here?" He invited. "We could keep each other warm."

"Ace no, not if you're gonna do what you did last night," Angela begged.

"Angie, trust me," Ace said. "It's so cold we're probably not gonna live til tomorrow. I'm tired as fuck, but I can't sleep because I'm freezin'. Gettin' into your pants is the last thing on my mind." Angela hesitated. Ace continued, "Look, Angela, baby, I've lied to a lot of people. I have _never_ lied to you before. I'm not gonna start now."

Quietly, trying as hard as she could not to wake anyone else in the back seat, Angela crawled up to the front seat and sat on top of Ace's lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight. He kissed the top of her head softly as she rested against his chest.

"Good night Ace," Angela whispered as her eyes became heavy.

"Good night Angie," Ace whispered back. "I love you," he added. He didn't know whether or not Angela heard him. She was already asleep.

The snow finally subsided. Clouds still covered the sky as a new day dawned. Streaks of pink, blue, and green shone through the clouds.

"It's so cold up here!" Princess complained as she Bubbles and Buttercup took her by the hands and followed Blossom through the sky. "_How_ do you ever get used to this!?" Of course, before she could get an answer, Bubbles spotted a heap of red and silver metal buried in the snow.

"What's down there?" Bubbles cried.

"Let's get a closer look!" Blossom decided.

"What?!" Princess screamed as they swooped down. "What does a red piece of junk have to do with anything?"

"What the…" Blossom said in disbelief as they landed on the snowy plains to get a better look at the unidentified piece of metal.

"It's a car," Bubbles pointed out.

"It's not just _any_ car," Buttercup pointed out. "It's the _Gangrene Gang's_ car! Or at least the one they stole! Let's get 'em!"

Buttercup was ready to drag the gang out of the convertible when Blossom stopped her.

"No Buttercup!" Blossom protested. "They've probably been here all night! We need to help them!"

"WHAT?!" Princess demanded.

"Princess," Blossom said gently, "When you're a normal person, it's okay if you can't save everyone. If you want to be a superhero, it's your _job _to save everyone, even if they're bad guys. You bet we'd do it for you if you were in trouble."

Blossom was too busy focusing on the task at hand to notice whether her touching words would fall on deaf ears. Using her laser vision, she melted the snow off of the car. One by one, six traumatized delinquents spilled out of the car.

"Thank God!" Angela cried as soon as she saw Princess and the Powerpuff Girls. "Princess, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!" She picked up Princess and hugged her tightly as Princess ordered to be put down.

"How long were you guys trapped here for?" Bubbles asked.

"We've been stuck here since yesterday afternoon and our car ran outta gas just before yous girls showed up. How can we ever thank you?" Ace asked with sincere gratitude.

"By letting us kick your butts!" Buttercup said furiously.

"Please don't!" Angela begged. "I give up! We don't have to run away anymore! I know what I did was really, really wrong, but please, give me another chance to explain!"

"You _stole_ from my daddy!" Princess reiterated. "You're absolutely disgusting, Angela! You're a disgrace to the Morbucks family tree."

"I already told you why I did it, Princess" Angela said. "And one day, when you're old enough to realize it, you'll feel the same way. But I stole from Uncle because I love Ace. If Ace wants me to steal for him, I would do it in a heartbeat."

"I still don't know what's worse," Angela said in disgust. "The fact that he's with _you_ or the fact that you're with _him_. Either way, you're both disgusting and you deserve each other."

"_Wait a second_," Buttercup asked, not believing what Angela just said. "You _love_ him?" She added bitterly, "I hope you realize he's just gonna use you the same way he used me."

"Buttercup, when you told me how he hurt you, I _was_ worried," Angela quickly explained as Ace wrapped his arms around her. "But he's given me no reason not to trust him."

"Yet," Buttercup scoffed.

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" Bubbles jabbed as Buttercup stuck her tongue out at her. Her tongue curled as it did in "Nothin' Special".

"Fine, be jealous," Angela said as she shrugged her shoulders. "See if I care."

"What's it gonna take to convince you girls I changed?" Ace asked. "Can't you see we're in love with each other?"

"It'ssss true," Snake testified.

"Angela, I know you're older than we are, but fourteen is still a little too young to say you're in love with anyone. Even if you _do_ love Ace, it's still wrong to go out and steal for someone," Blossom reasoned. "You can't sacrifice honor for love."

"Why not?" Angela argued. "Women have been doing it for their men for years and years." By now, those that didn't understand were all staring at her. There was a long pause before Angela said in a defeated tone, "I give up. You already caught us and we're just glad to be alive."

"You're not gonna give up already are you?" Arturo asked.

"Big Billy wanna go to New York!" Big Billy whined.

"Look, we're lucky we made it through the night without the roof of the convertible collapsing," Angela said. "I give up. We're done. We've faced our Waterloo."

"You meansss we're facing a giant, wet toiletssss?" Snake asked Angela clocked him in the jaw as Snake rubbed it with the hope it wouldn't turn into a bruise.

"Forget New York," Angela said. "We'll go quietly as long as we can all stay together. You won't even have to beat us up. We'll face jail time if we have to. Just let us all stay together."

"Angie, you sure that's what you want?" Ace asked. "You really wanna go back?"

"Ace, as long as I'm with you, I don't care where we are," Angela said. "I'll be with you and that's home enough for me."

"That's so sweet," Bubbles said in awe. "I hope one day I find love like that."

"They're _not_ in love! Ace is totally lying to her!" Buttercup groaned impatiently.

Just then, a jet swooped down from the sky as the deafening roar of the engine filled the vacant prairie. The group was nearly blown down by the gusts. The jet was big and white and had a huge green dollar sign on the tail.

"Oh God," Angela muttered, not sure anyone could hear her over the engine. "_Now_ I'm in trouble."

From out of the jet stepped a guy who wore a red, white, and blue tuxedo. His full beard was white revealing he was a little more than middle-aged. With him was a woman with dark, curly hair and emerald eyes that emitted a look of malice. She was tall and slender and she wore a white fur coat. If the words "rich witch" could be personified, this woman would be it.

"Angela Abigail Morbucks!" The woman cried as she raced over to hug Angela tightly. "I'm _so_ glad you're safe!"

"Oh Aunt Penelope! Uncle Sam! I'm _so_ glad you arrived!" Princess said in mock relief that the Powerpuff Girls didn't buy for a minute. "I _knew_ you said you'd be back next week in time for Angela's birthday…"

"Wait a second, I have a birthday?" Angela remembered.

"Oh honey, did they brainwash you?" Sam asked concerned. "Your fifteenth birthday is on November thirtieth, remember?"

"Wait, _brainwash_?" Angela asked incredulously.

"Yes honey, Princess told us that those green guys kidnapped you and held you hostage for three months and forced you to steal from your uncle!" Penelope reiterated as she refused to let her daughter go.

"I _told_ you sending her to my brother's house was a bad idea!" Sam said smugly. "But you didn't listen!"

"Wait a second, Mom, Dad, those guys never kidnapped me," Angela corrected. "They're my friends. In fact, I've fallen in love with one of them." Penelope let go of Angela in shocked as Angela stood by Ace. "I love him, Mother. And he loves me."

Penelope's face turned from a look of relief and concern to one of anger and disgust.

"It's all wrong Aunt Penelope! They brainwashed her! Honest!" Princess cried. "But don't worry," she said with fake sweetness. "I saved Angela and we can send those bad guys away for a long time!"

"Mr. and Mrs. Morbucks, Princess is stretching the truth," Blossom suggested. "Princess only came to us when Angela stole from her father and we enlisted her help because she knows Angela better than any of us do."

Ten different voices began chattering all at once until Sam took out a red, white, and blue air-horn and honked it to get everyone's attention.

"It looks like there's going to be a _lot_ of explaining that needs to be done," Sam realized. "Everyone, hop on board."

"Even usssss?" Snake asked.

"Big Billy might need a seatbelt extender," Arturo jabbed.

"Fly in the big plane!" Big Billy cried excitedly.

"Yes, all of you," Sam repeated. "You all had a part in this too and I need to get _everyone's_ side of the story before we get to Townsville."

The Powerpuff Girls, Princess, Angela, and the Gangrene Gang followed Angela's parents back onto the jet as it set its course for Townsville.


	17. Baby Don't Go

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own The Powerpuff Girls or "Baby Don't Go" by Sonny and Cher. Thanks to all who have read this story and enjoyed it! Here we go!**

Aboard the private jet, the Powerpuff Girls, The Gangrene Gang, Princess, and Angela all made themselves comfortable in the jet's sky lounge on the cozy blue leather seats. For the last ten minutes, Penelope had been fussing over Angela, shooting criticisms like, "Your skin's so green! It'll take _forever_ to get that out!" "You've got so many zits! Have you been eating fast food like I told you _not_ to?" "When did you straighten your hair like that? You can't pull it off!"

Penelope finally sat down and asked, "Would anyone care for some beverages?"

"Please, Penelope, this is not the time," Sam said sternly as everyone looked up at the patriotically-dressed oil tycoon. "Now, where should we begin?"

A million voices rang out at once.

"It's all _their_ fault, Uncle Sam!" Princess accused over the hullaballoo. "Those guys brainwashed Angela and made her do their bidding!"

"It's all a lie!" Angela defended.

Somewhere among the cacophony, Grubber's raspberries and Big Billy's mindless, happy babbling could be heard. Finally, Sam sounded off the air horn as everyone snapped to attention.

"Now," Sam began, "Princess, you start first. In your own words, tell us what happened."

"Thank you, Uncle Sam," Princess said sweetly as Buttercup rolled her eyes. "My sweet cousin Angela came to visit me for a few months while you and Aunt Penelope were celebrating your second honeymoon. But then one night I found out she was gone, and I was absolutely devastated. Two months later she came back and I was _so_ happy! I tried to say hello to her and I was happy she returned safely, but she called me a bunch of mean names and stole a bunch of Daddy's stuff! So I followed her back to where I thought she might've been hiding, and sure enough, The Gangrene Gang was holding her hostage! They brainwashed her, Uncle! They threatened to do it to me, too, but I ran to get Daddy's help. Daddy didn't believe me, so I did a good thing by enlisting the help of the Powerpuff Girls!"

"Oh please, she's totally just making stuff up!" Buttercup cut in.

"Yeah!" Blossom agreed. "By making _her_ look like Angela's the damsel in distress, she gets to make _herself_ look like the good guy!"

"Say whatever you want," Princess scoffed. "But my uncle will never believe you."

"No, it's all right girls," Sam assured them. "Go ahead. Tell your side of the story."

"Well," Blossom began, "my sisters and I were out on patrol one night when we found Angela passed out in a car. We thought she was hurt, so we took her back to our house so she could regain her strength. When she finally came-to the next day, we asked her what her name was and how she got there. Angela told us her name was Angie."

"She didn't say where she was from or nothin'," Buttercup interrupted. "She just showed up outta nowhere and told us she was harassed by two big guys."

"That turned out to be a lie," Bubbles giggled. She added sadly, "I do feel kinda bad because we threw two innocent guys in jail."

"We shoulda known better," Buttercup said angrily. "The name Angela Morbucks was all over the news for weeks because she went missing, and for some _weird_ reason, crime rates in Townsville go through the roof!"

"Anyway!" Blossom said loudly, trying to regain control of the story, "It turned out Angela and the Gangrene Gang had stolen a convertible and were trying to get a radio for it," Blossom continued as Sam listened intently to the leader of the crime-fighting kids. "Not too long ago, Princess showed up at our house and told us her cousin was part of the Gangrene Gang and was responsible for a lot of the strange crimes that had been going on in Townsville. We asked her to help us because we figured we'd have a better idea of what we would be up against if we brought along someone who knew Angela fairly well."

"I see," Sam nodded.

"Ain't you gonna wanna hear our side of the story?" Ace asked.

"Shut up!" Buttercup snapped as she gave Ace the evil eye. "No one wants to hear from a liar."

"It's okay, sweetheart," Angela whispered to Ace as she lay a hand on his shoulder. "I'll tell the truth. The truth will set us free."

"Angela, why don't you tell us what happened?" Sam invited.

"Okay, Dad," Angela said as she stood up and cleared her throat. "I wasn't kidnapped. I did run away from Uncle's house." Penelope's jaw dropped.

"Angela Abigail Morbucks!" Penelope scolded. "Why did you do it?"

"I didn't mean to worry or hurt anyone," Angela said. "I was just bored with my life. I wanted to go out, have a little fun, and be someone else for a little while. So I ran away in the middle of the night. I changed my hair and I changed my name. I put on different clothes and I left all my credit cards at Uncle's house. I figured I would just pretend to be someone else for the night, and then go back to Uncle's place. So I picked a few pockets and ran around downtown. And then I saw a merchandise truck, and I realized how easy it would be to steal from it."

Penelope's jaw hit the floor in horror.

"Angela, darling!" Penelope gasped. "You can have anything you want in the world as long as you ask us! We'll buy it for you! There's no need to steal!"

"Don't you see, Mom?" Angela asked. "I didn't care about the DVD player I stole! I just wanted the thrills, I guess. Anyway, these guys saw me stealing, and I guess they liked what they saw. I was having too much fun, and since I just didn't want to go back, I asked them to let me stay with them."

"_You_ stayed with _them_?" Penelope asked in disgust. "Angela, you stayed with _five_ teenage _boys_?"

"I don't know what the big deal is," Angela said. "They didn't do anything to hurt me. They took care of me."

"And Angie took care of us!" Big Billy babbled. "Angie stole lots of good things for us! Things we needed!"

Ace was about to slap Big Billy for opening up his mouth, but Angela gave him a pleading look.

"You took care of them?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Ya see, we're poor and none of us got families," Ace explained. Angela wondered if this was going to be some attempt at charming his way out of trouble. But this tone in his voice sounded different. It sounded human. It sounded fragile and lost. "We live in the Townsville Dump and we get by on whatever we can steal. Oh, and every now and again we like to cause trouble and make fun of people, but we ain't bad."

"You're just…" Angela said trying to find the words, "sad."

"Yeah," Ace nodded somberly.

"I stole for them, and I turned out to be pretty good at it," Angela continued. "And they really liked it. And one night, we decided to TP rich people's houses. And then I saw Uncle's house. I couldn't resist. If they liked it when I stole from stores and from average Joes, imagine how they'd love it if I stole from the richest guy in Townsville! And I knew exactly how!" By now, Angela was talking rapidly and her face was bright red. "I'm so sorry," Angela said. "I'm not proud of what I did. I don't think I'll ever stop regretting it. But I love Ace. And these guys were the only friends I ever had."

"Angela, what about boarding school? Did you not have friends there?" Penelope asked.

"I was _expelled_ from boarding school because my roommates were stuck-up bitches who only cared about money, being pretty, and having a rich husband!" Angela argued.

"Watch your language!" Penelope scolded.

"The point is," Angela said as she took a deep breath, "these guys are the closest thing I've ever had to friends. They've shown me what fun is. They've let me be just who I want to be."

"If you want to be a swearing, stealing, delinquent, I can't condone that," Penelope sniffed

"Well, we can discuss all that later, but you can bet you'll receive some kind of punishment for running away," Sam sighed. He looked to the Gangrene Gang and said, dangerously. "And as for _you_ gentlemen, you're probably going to fry for a long time." He gestured at Ace and asked, "How old are you?"

"Seventeen," Ace replied nervously.

"When do you turn eighteen?" Sam wanted to know.

"June sixth," Ace managed to say.

"It doesn't matter, they should be punished immediately!" Penelope urged. "Not only did they engage in stealing with our daughter, but they hid her from the cops who were searching _frantically_ for her for months!"

"Funny," Angela said. "If they were looking so hard for me, how come they couldn't recognize me?"

"Why don't you just let _us_ deal with them when we get to Townsville?" Blossom suggested. "We're better equipped to deal with criminals!"

"What about me?!" Princess demanded. "I helped you find them!" But she went totally ignored.

"Either way, they should be _severely_ punished," Penelope insisted.

"Doesn't anyone care that they _didn't_ hide me?!" Angela screamed over the chaos. Everyone stared at her as she turned red with rage. "Doesn't anyone care what I want?! They made me happy! They showed me what it's like to have fun with friends!" An awkward silence passed as Angela sat down. She sighed and stared at the clouds that swiftly passed the round windows. The jet was slowly making its descent into Townsville. "I'll happily pay for the bail of all these guys with my allowance for the next three years if I have to. That's how happy they made me." Ace put his arms around her. "That's how happy _he_ has made me. You're my parents. You should care about my happiness."

Ace looked over at Angela, the passion in her brown eyes. She had just offered to pay for his bail. If that wasn't love, what was?

"We can discuss this at home," Sam assured her. The jet landed on a tarmac in a vacant field outside of Townsville. Despite it being on the chilly side, it was beautiful and sunny, a relief from the dismal, grey prairies of the Midwest.

One by one, they filed off the jet. Penelope and Sam had gotten into the shiny, white limousine that awaited them. Penelope rolled down the window to talk to Princess.

"We called your father," Penelope said to her niece. "He knows where you are and he'll send a limo to pick you up right here very shortly. Here's two hundred dollars for your troubles." She handed Princess the crisp hundred dollar bills.

"You're too generous," Princess said smugly. If only she got paid _every_ time Angela got into trouble.

Angela was on the other side of the back seat with the window rolled down so she could take one last look at Ace before departing to Cityville.

"I guess this is goodbye," Ace said.

"No, never goodbye," Angela assured him with a faint smile on her lips. "I'll figure out how to visit you any way I can. I'll be back someday."

Ace took off his shades. His sad, dark eyes were shining and bright and almost seemed to pierce Angela's soul like a blade.

"I love you," Ace whispered.

"I love you too," Angela replied. "I'll write to you every day. I promise."

"I promise I'll learn how to read," Ace swore.

They leaned in to kiss each other passionately. He pulled away as the limo drove off into the afternoon. Angela waved goodbye as Ace waved back.

"Tissss better to have loved and losssst than to have never loved at allsssss," Snake said quietly.

The limo disappeared down the highway. Ace put his shades back on as a tear rolled down his face.

"Don't think we'll go easy on ya just because you're crying!" Buttercup mocked.

"Buttercup, wait!" Bubbles urged, being ever-sensitive.

"Girls," Ace began, "I know you wanna beat us up, just like ya always do. Yeah, we did some bad stuff, but for once in our lives, we did somethin' real good, too! We made someone other than ourselves really happy! Isn't that enough? Can't ya let us off for at least that?"

Blossom stroked her chin in thought. Finally she said, "I think I know the perfect punishment for you boys."

Later that night, the Gangrene Gang found themselves in a cramped little jail cell at the Townsville County jail as the prison doors slammed, making a clanging echo throughout the corridors.

"Well, at least we didn't get beat up this time," Arturo said, trying to remain optimistic.

"Cheer upsssss!" Snake said. "Three weeksssss isn't ssso bad! We'll be outta here by Chrisssssstmasssss!"

Snake's cheerfulness was met with a blow to the nose by Ace's fist. As Snake rubbed his throbbing nose, Ace sighed and looked out the barred prison window up at the night sky. The moon was a waning crescent.

_I wonder if Angie's lookin' at the moon right now_, Ace thought sadly.

**The End**

**Trivia: As I mentioned, Angela's birthday is on November thirtieth and Ace's birthday is June sixth. This is because Angela's characteristics match that of a Sagittarius while Ace's characteristics match that of a Gemini. Both signs are supposedly good matches for each other. **

**Anyway! Hope you enjoyed it! And now to begin cranking out the sequel! **


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